Cistern Drama

If you've read this blog for any length of time, it's likely you know that we have a cistern. This is our only access to running water to use with baths, the toilet, washing clothes, etc. And you'll also know that it leaks and we have been trying to figure out what to do about it for years. 

Before I continue, however, let me answer a few questions I'm sure you'll have (because everyone we mention the situation to has the same questions).

What is a cistern, anyway? 

A cistern is a large tank (made of cement, fiberglass, or plastic) that is, usually, set in the ground to collect runoff water, mainly from a roof. The water we use in our house comes from the sky via rain or snow. It's funneled from the gutters on the roof through downspouting into an underground tank

Can't you drill a well?

We have two wells (dug by the previous owner) on our property--neither of which is functional. One was dug and hit a natural gas pocket. The other tapped into a water flow that was full of minerals and yields about 250 gallons of water per week, which isn't enough to supply our water needs. 

Can't you tap into city water?

We live in a holler with a one-lane road for access. The lane is bounded by a large hill on one side and small creek on the other. It would be massively cost-prohibitive to dig through the hill, impossible to dig up the lane, and the DNR wouldn't like it if we dug up the creek in order to lay the pipes necessary to tap into the city water. 

So, what's wrong with your . . . what did you call it . . . cistern? 

It was made of cement, with top and bottom sections. The top had shifted somewhat off the bottom and had large cracks running through it. So water would leak out of it . . . and also into it. It was only holding about 500 gallons at a time, so unless we were continually supplied with rain, we had to use our truck every week to get water or call the guy who hauls water to bring us a load of water. He brings about 1600 gallons but since the cistern leaks, most of that was gone before we could use it. Lately, we were hauling water once a week (a 90-minute round trip for Seth in the truck) or calling the water guy (to the tune of $40 for each delivery). And lately, we've been calling the water guy since the brakes were bad on our own water-hauling truck and Seth hadn't had an opportunity to fix them.

Can't you just put a liner in it or seal it somehow?

We have looked into all the options available for repairing a leaky cistern and exhausted each one for one reason or another. A few years ago, we had it Thorosealed. Since then, Seth has plastered it with a foam sealer and has done quite a few other things that I can't even remember. The patches and fixes just don't hold water (get it?) and we are continually left without any. 

Wow, that sucks. So, what are you going to do about it?

Yes, thanks. Back to the point of this post. Back in 2012, we got an estimate to have a new concrete cistern installed to the tune of about $9,000. That was a bit much for us, so we checked into various other kinds of cisterns (poly tanks, fiberglass) and found that, because of the soil in our area (mainly clay), the only type of cistern that we can really get is one made of concrete. So, we were back to the drawing board. 

When we got the initial quote for a new cistern a few years ago, I had checked the phone book to see if there was someone else in the area who installed cisterns and found that it had no "cistern" category. I didn't know where to go from there, so over the years, we've tried these various other solutions, checking into other cistern possibilities but we kept running into the same issues. Occasionally, we would ask someone in the area if they knew of anyone who installed cisterns (because, c'mon, we're in a very rural area and surely someone is a professional cistern installer around here). Please refer to the questions above for the resulting conversations. 

In November, we were getting fairly exasperated with our water situation and tired of dumping money into a failing cistern. During one of the water deliveries that were becoming more frequent, I mentioned to Charles, the water hauler, about our dilemma. When I told him the price we had been quoted, his jaw dropped, and he said, "Oh, no, no, no, honey. That's just not right. Why, my son and a friend of his installed a cistern just down at the end of your lane a few years ago for just a couple thousand dollars." 

WHAT?! I thought to myself. YOU MEAN THE WATER HAULER HAS KNOWN ALL THESE YEARS WHERE WE COULD GET A NEW CISTERN AND WE'VE NEVER ASKED HIM? I really did yell that to myself. How in the world had we not had this conversation with him before?! 

After I picked up my jaw from the ground, I asked him for more details, he gave me the name and number of the plumber who installed the cistern and, as soon as I got back into the house, I gave the guy a call. He said he was busy and probably wouldn't get to it for awhile. Seriously?!

But, I now knew where to look for cistern-installers -- the plumbing section of the yellow pages. I got the phone book, grabbed a pen, and began going down the list of local plumbers. My (multiple) conversations usually went like this: 

Me: Hi, I'm wondering if you install cisterns.

Plumber: A what?

Me: A cistern.

Plumber: A kitchen sink?

Me: No, a cis-tern. Cistern. 

Plumber: What's that? 

Me: I'll take that as a "no" then. 

A few said they used to do such a thing but didn't any longer. Some said they didn't but here's a number to try of someone who might. I spent several hours calling around, crossing off name after name. I even went through the list of "septic tank installers," thinking there was surely some similarity between installing a cistern and a septic tank. 

I found a manufacturer of cisterns in the area but they couldn't give me the name of anyone who would install it. And Seth didn't think he was really up for the job of installing it himself (despite the fact that BIL Nate was ready and willing to hop in an excavator and dig a hole for it). I may or may not have have said to him, "C'mon, it can't be that hard to install a cistern, can it? Don't you just dig a hole, drop it in the ground, and hook it up?" He may or may not have just looked at me and raised his eyebrow.

One of my last phone calls was to a plumber named Bob. His wife answered the phone and I left a message with her. Bob was out hunting but would give me a call back later (hashtag smalltownlife). A day or two later, he did, and much to my delight, he knew how to install a cistern. Hope was on the horizon. 

A few days later, he and the guy who excavates for him came out, looked at our set up, asked the above questions, and then said he would give us a bid for the job. Kieran, meanwhile, asked the excavator guy why he was missing his two front teeth. "This is what happens when you don't brush your teeth, kid," he said. I appreciated that the cistern installation also came with a real-life hygiene lesson for the boys.

Bob said, not including the cistern itself, he could do the job for $3200 -- that included excavating the area, hooking up the plumbing, covering it all back up, and hauling away the extra dirt. Wow. That sounded so much better than the $9000 originally quoted. 

So, I called the cistern manufacturer and scheduled a delivery of a 3,400-gallon cistern a few weeks later when Bob said he would be available. And then, when Charles again came to bring us another load of water, I so very proudly told him that I had found a guy to install the cistern and his name was Bob X. 

Charles' mouth dropped open and he said, "Oh, no, no, no, honey. Not Bob X! No, no, no. That just won't do. I've seen his work and dealt with him before and you do not want him installing your cistern. He does not do good work. I just can't stand to see someone taken advantage of. No, no, no. Why don't you give Lil' Brian a call -- the guy who lives down at the end of your lane. He does this type of thing all the time. I'll have my son give him a call for you." 

WHAT?! I thought to myself. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! I CAN NOT BE HEARING THIS RIGHT NOW!! THERE IS A CISTERN-INSTALLER RIGHT DOWN THE ROAD FROM US??!!?

After I picked up my jaw from off the ground, I thanked him for his kindness in looking out for us and went inside, debating whether to call and cancel Bob. Finally, I did. And then I tried to figure out the best way to get in touch with Neighbor Brian. 

The next day, a truck roared up to our house and out hopped Brian. Charles' son had indeed called him and let him know we were in dire straits and in need of his help. He took a look at what was going on, asked us the above questions, and then said he would do it and could get to it on the day I'd originally scheduled the cistern to be delivered. He came out a day or two later to dig a test hole to make sure he wasn't going to hit bedrock and, thankfully, found nine feet of dirt sitting under our property. 

The day the cistern was scheduled to be delivered, it rained. Apparently, it's not wise to dig a massive hole in your yard during a rain storm. So, we postponed the delivery and installation until the end of that week. I was beginning to think we just weren't meant to have a new cistern . . . . 

Finally, the day arrived and Brian showed up to begin the excavation. 

Soon enough, there was a giant gaping hole in the ground, next to our old cistern. 

And then what to my wondering eyes should appear but a giant truck hauling a cement tank on its bed. 

Our cistern had arrived. Maybe, just maybe, we actually would get a brand-spanking-new working non-leaking cistern after all. 

The old cistern is under the small shed beside the truck.

Once the truck backed up to the waiting hole, this is what happened. 

And then this:

And just like that, our new cistern was installed. Brian, Seth, and BIL Nate (who was visiting for his traditional Thanksgiving hunting trip) got down inside it, washed it out, and then Thorosealed it. That cured for a day, and they worked on hooking up the plumbing to the existing lines. They left a pipe going into the existing cistern so that it could backfill when the new cistern was full -- an extra water-storage tank, if you will. 

And, finally, finally, finally, Brian backfilled the hole, and we were all set to begin collecting water and using our new cistern (he'll be back in the spring, after the dirt settles a bit, to finish covering it and haul away the rest of the dirt). 

Charles returned to fill the tank, congratulated us on a job well done, and figured he'd worked himself out of a job -- since, hopefully, this cistern will hold water and we won't be needing his services as often.

Oh, and Brian's final bill for us? $762. (The tank itself was $2400.) Yeah. Who knew the neighbor down the street installed cisterns? WHO KNEW THE NEIGHBOR DOWN THE STREET INSTALLED CISTERNS?!?

PS -- The cistern was installed mid-December and we haven't had to have it filled since. #winnerwinner

You know you live in a Holler when . . .

. . . it's been raining all day and your son says, "Hey, that means we can take a bath in the BIG bathtub!"

We have a garden tub with jets in our bathroom that the boys like to get in. But it takes so much water to fill it that we only let them in it when the cistern is full and overflowing from a lot of rain and we have water to spare. With over an inch of rain (and therefore over 500 gallons of water), today was such a day. Except that bedtime came before they could take their bath. Maybe tomorrow . . . if it's still raining . . . .

Sorting Coins

Today, Seth checked the cistern and found that it was low on water, which meant he needed to take the truck to get a load of water (which, in this case, is about 550 gallons). The last time he went, he had to go to the more expensive dispenser (because the cheaper one wasn't working) and the cost was $16 instead of the usual $2.75. The water dispenser only takes quarters and, with that fill-up, he'd used all the quarters he had in the truck. 

So, today, when it was determined he would need to get water, we raided several of our coin stashes for quarters. 

Cael helped me sort them all and in the process thought he might like having a nickel for an eye. 

When we finished, we'd found several $10 rolls of quarters and lots of pennies, nickels, and dimes.

While Kieran went with Seth, Cael and I talked about how, instead of collecting quarters, we could use two dimes and a nickel to make $.25 and save those for our Vacation Bible School mission project in June. Every $.25 we collect purchases a meal for a hungry child that is distributed in a Food Pak by Children's Hunger Fund. Each Food Pak is delivered by a local pastor and comes with one of four gospel tracts (that I happened to have written and that have been translated into Spanish, French, Russian, and Thai). If you're looking for a way to share your hard-earned money with those who are less fortunate (and much more hungry), may I recommend you check out CHF?

Water, water everywhere . . .

Day 24

Just before I took this photo, I texted Seth, "We're almost out of water. Or out."

While I was making supper, I had turned on the faucet to get some hot water to loosen the cap to a jar of almond butter and realized the water was flowing without much pressure. I quickly turned it off. If the pump in the cistern that pumps the water into the house is out of the water completely, it creates an airlock in the pipes that's difficult to get rid of. Or something like that. I'm not a cistern expert, I just know that when we run out of water completely, it takes a long while before everything starts working again the way it should and involves several trips into the cistern (by Seth, of course). And I didn't think that with temperatures hovering around zero degrees, Seth wanted to be making many trips into the cistern.

The lid to the cistern had frozen shut a few days ago, making it difficult to check the water level. So Seth had put in several hundred gallons last week and hadn't checked it since. I've been hoping the recent snowfalls would add water to the cistern as the snow melts off the roof, but snow doesn't provide as much water as rain does and the temperatures have been cold enough that the snow has only melted on the front side of the roof. And so, even though we're surrounded by water (see all that white stuff out the window?), our cistern is dry. There's some irony for ya.

After Seth got home from work, he warmed up the red truck and headed out for the first load of 200 gallons. Life sure is fun in the Holler.

Maybe I need to get out my snow shovel and start shoveling snow into the cistern . . . .

What we do for water

I've mentioned before that we get our water from a cistern. And, if I were the proof-texting type, I would say that having a cistern (or a well) is the only way one can truly be godly because cisterns (and wells) are mentioned in the Bible. Check it out. (And I'll let you figure out if I'm really the proof-texting type.)

At any rate, we've had a love-hate affair with our cistern over the years. It (or, rather, the Lord through the rain) gives us free water, which we love. But it has gone and cracked itself, which we hate.

We thought we had had it repaired over a year ago, but the seal they used didn't hold and so we're back to having a leaky cistern. 

We've tried to think through a variety of solutions to the leaky cistern which don't involve purchasing a new one to the tune of thousands and thousands of dollars but which will provide us with clean water.

One solution is that we just make more trips to get water. Of course, that involves a lot of fuel and a lot of time and a lot of wear and tear on the F150 we were using to haul the 200-gallon water tank. The above is a picture of one of the places we can go to fill up the tank (about 30 minutes away). For $0.50, we can get 200 gallons. 

The last time Seth checked out the F150, he realized that the entire under-body-something was rusted and would be falling apart any day. Which meant we needed a new water (and gravel and mulch and whatever-else) hauler. So we got this beast. 

And, after getting help from family members removing the rusted cabinets on the sides, we're able to haul water once again. 

But will probably get a bigger tank . . . 

And, in case you're wondering, "Well, why don't they just tap into city water?" Here's your answer:

We live at the end of a very long, thin lane lined by trees on one side and a stream on the other side. "City water" stops at the beginning of the lane and to bring all the pipes back to where we live would require permits from the DNR to dig up the stream, and then, in the unlikely event they granted such an atrocity, lots and lots more work. To the tune of lots of thousands of dollars. 

We could get some type of liner to put in it, which is why Seth climbed down into it a few months ago -- he was taking measurements, but there's a big wall in the middle of it that would make it difficult for a liner to fit well.

So, here we sit, with a cracked cistern, water leaking out and ground water leaking in. Which means, of course, that the cistern water can get kind of funky (don't worry -- we don't drink the water from the cistern, ever). 

So, Seth devised this cistern filter, based on a pool filter concept, and installed it a few months ago with the help of BIL Nate, to help filter the water and keep it clean.

Which brings me to today. Today, Seth took the boys for a ride in the big red truck to the local farm supply store to get tome heat tape to cover the filter pipes to keep them from freezing and also to get some sealant and a few other items to use to try to patch the cracks in the cistern. And so there you have it. Everything you never wanted to know about what we do for water. 

Day 14

To snow or not to snow

Day 4

Instead of the SNOWSTORM OF DOOM that the weatherpeople were predicting for today, we got the RAIN THAT FILLS THE CISTERN. Which was actually better because the cistern was getting low. 

So, this was the view when I decided that the snowstorm wasn't gonna happen (at least around here--the more westerly and northerly parts of our state were receiving the brunt of the storm) and took a picture out my kitchen window while Cael and Daddy spent some time snuggling. 

You know you live in a Holler when . . .

your idea of one-upping your neighbor goes like this, "So, I checked out the specs on the truck we just bought and it will haul twice as much water [for the cistern] as [neighbor]'s truck does!"





So, there you go. Apparently, bragging rights in the Holler go to the guy whose truck can haul the most water/gravel/dirt/stuff.

You know you live in a Holler when . . .

. . . your son asks you to add a cistern to the picture you've been drawing with him.

Second opinions

Sometimes it pays to get a second opinion. And sometimes you have to pay to get a second opinion, which we did on Friday.

A few months ago, we had our cistern looked at to see if it could be repaired since it wasn't holding water. The guys who came told it was beyond repair and that we needed to purchase a new one to the tune of $9000. We said no thanks, we'll figure something else out.

So we called a guy who repairs wells and asked him to come look at ours, thinking that maybe if we got the well re-hooked-up, we could occasionally pump water from the well into the cistern, when we needed it. The day he was supposed to come, he suddenly remembered that he was the one who had dug the well on our property in the first place for the first owner (the guy we bought the place from). He said the well was worthless, that the bedrock around here is too dense and doesn't allow water to flow freely through it, and that we'd only get at a maximum 250 gallons a week. On a good week. Which was why the first owner had unhooked the well and put in a cistern.

And then the well guy recommended another concrete company that also repairs cisterns. And so Seth called them up, and one of their guys came to take a look at the cistern Friday evening.

(That's the guy's truck parked beside the cistern.

His ladder is peeking out from the cistern entrance hole.)

In order to get a good look at the cistern, he needed to pump it out and climb in. And so, with our permission, he did just that. He found the 10 cracks the other guys had found, but said it was definitely repairable and that he could either fix it that evening or he could come back some other time. We had him fix it that evening. To the tune of $500. Much better than $9000.

The Thermoseal he used to fill the cracks and then coat the entire inside of the cistern has a 24-hour drying time. So we were without water from Friday evening through Sunday morning, when the guy who delivers 1600 gallons of water came. Since we needed to be in church Sunday morning for a membership class and I don't like leaving the house without a shower and we didn't know exactly when the water guy would get here, we spent Saturday night in a nearby hotel so that we could use their shower. And also their indoor, heated pool. Which the boys loved.

And so now we're back to having a cistern that holds 2000 gallons of water, instead of just several hundred gallons, at a time. Let the rain commence.



The Cistern

Kitchen window, day 106

The good news is that we had the cistern professionally cleaned today, which means, Dan, that you won't need to help us out with that this year.

The bad news is that the reason we had the cistern professionally cleaned was because they needed to clean it in order to figure out why it has been leaking. The even badder news is that it has cracked beyond repair (thanks to the inept way it was installed in the first place) and that we'll need to completely replace it. Ouch. My ING savings account is already tightening its fist on our money.

And, just in case you're wondering what a cistern actually is, it's a tank buried in the ground designed to collect rainwater from the roof of the house. We don't have access to city water in the Holler (the powers that be refuse to bring the water pipes back the lane) and our well is too full of minerals to be of much use. So the only way we can have running water in our house, besides carrying buckets of water from the creek, is to pump water from a cistern. I like to think of it as my little way of reducing, reusing, and recycling, all rolled into one.

Out my kitchen window, day 312

This was the view when we (and by "we," I mainly mean "Seth") began The Project.

We (and by "we," I mainly mean Seth) have been saying for the past few years that we need to clean out the cistern. The last time it was cleaned was about 4 years ago. The day finally came when we (and by "we," I mainly mean me) said, "Get it done now, I'm tired of bathing in mud." (Not really on the mud part--that was added for dramatic effect.)

So, Seth called his old friend Dan, who helped with the cleaning 4 years ago and has had a hankerin' to help again ever since, and scheduled a "man date" for the cleaning today.

Dan was first to descend into what he affectionately referred to as the Pit of Despair.

Which looked a little something like this during the cleaning process.

Of course, I was on hand to provide any help I could to the menfolk.

Although I did not descend into The Pit, Dan captured the experience beautifully.

The Project was quite a job for us (and by "us," I'm sure you know who I mean by now) and included patching some leaks with cement.

BIL Ethan arrived just in time to act as a hoist. 

Once the cistern was clean, the tank was refilled with clean water. The Project is now complete. Until next year (or so).

(Thanks for the help, Dan!)