I was hoping to have more irrigation done by now, but that did not end up happening this year. So I am hauling around 175 gallons (1500 pounds) of water by skid steer over to my garden every week or so. Probably will need to bring water more often when we get into the middle of the summer and when there's more plants in the ground. Its okay this is temporary, there's always next year to have a better system in place, but for now this works.
Placing these three barrels on wood pallets make it easy for me to move them using the skid steer and its fork attachment.
Using ratchet straps I make sure its secure before moving it. A second strap holds all three barrels together.
I fill up from my well, it takes about 30 minutes to fill up all three containers.
Once full we set off (slowly) to the third acre area where I am keeping my plants.
Placing it down its ready to be used. The containers sit high up on pallets to help with water flow. I carefully use water from the blue barrels first and then start using the reserve in the white barrel.
A quick selfie while in the skid steer. Have not got soaked yet today, but sometimes when I move the water the bung caps come lose and water comes flying out of them.. lol best to close the glass when driving them over to the garden area.
Driving it back to the workshop its good to have such a thing to move these. Pushing close to 1500 pounds the skid steer can handle it but not much else. I am not sure how I would do this otherwise, probably a few hundred feet of hose..lol So nice to fill them up and move them to where I need.
With the water onsite we can pump it out to the plants. A second strap can be seen holding all three barrels together so it has better stability on the pallets.
I use a car battery, a 12V DC transfer pump and a 3/4 inch 100 foot garden hose. I have a second 100 foot hose ready in case I cannot reach.
Pumping it from the white container requires me to drop the intake line into the barrel. But the blue ones are more easy and just attach at the bottom faucet.
When we turn on the water for the first time if its already really sunny outside we make sure to let that water exit the hose before watering. It gets very hot and would burn the plants, so its important to bleed that hot water off before starting.
We team up and they water and I turn the pump on and off. We switch sometimes and I do the watering and they do the switching of the pump. That way we do not waste water walking between raised garden beds.
Adjusting the nozzle we can give them a gentle mist or a jet to reach far away. I just have to make sure I do not turn it completely off while the pump is running or bad stuff could happen to the pump I would think.
Its a start, but eventually I plan on capturing rain water from my workshop and piping it over to the garden area. Its a long term project but I have an idea of how I wan to do it. Just need to get a dozen 250 gallon totes and then I can really get this setup going.