Where can you buy water in Grafton

[George Donnelly]

Where can one buy water in Grafton? I will need some until I get a well put in and/or a reliable rainwater catchment system. Thanks.

[jerry]

The general store has bottled water.
Right now you could just melt snow.
Your neighbors would probably be willing to let you fill your jugs from their well.

[George Donnelly]

Yeah I'm thinking in large quantities.

We might not be up there April/May at which point I imagine most of the snow will be gone.

Thanks.

[Free libertarian]

 Water for drinking can be bought in bulk.  Water for showering, dishes etc. can come from many sources.  I've used barrels and large food grade 265 gallon containers to store water, pumped from a stream. 

Outhouses or compost toilets don't use water.  Not everybody's cup of teas though. 

I've got a bit of experience with getting by with minimal water, don't mind giving you a hand when you get to Grafton setting up a catchment system or some tips on making your available water go further. 

[George Donnelly]

Thanks FL. I will definitely want to lean on you a bit.

I'm looking for water for cooking, eating, showering, cleaning and maybe some garden irrigation. I'm still researching rain catchment. I'll be up there after the AltExpo and would like to start collecting rain water (so we have some for when we come back in April) but have no idea how to do that without a roof! Any ideas?

[Free libertarian]

trees or stakes, Cheap tarps, clothes line, new plastic garbage cans or food grade barrels W/covers,  gravity, ability to do rain dances. 

[Lloyd Danforth]

If you have a conventional  structure you could have knock- down or removable gutters to collect rain in barrel or cisterns. It would be good if they got out of the way in the winter.

[George Donnelly]

Hehe good ideas, thanks guys. The gutters freeze up in winter?

[KBCraig]

Hehe good ideas, thanks guys. The gutters freeze up in winter?

Most definitely, which is why most people remove them before snow season. They contribute to ice dams, at the very least.

In the April/May time frame, you'll have plenty of opportunity to catch rain water, and siphon water from overflowing streams, to be stored in the containers of your choice.

I don't know about NH, but in flyover country there are blue and white food-grade 45-55 gallon containers readily available for dirt cheap. You might have to rinse out the claim juice flavor, though.

[Russell Kanning]

are you eventually going to dig a well?

[George Donnelly]

Maybe. Realtor told me it would run around $6500 and based on research it looks like the flow will be small and I'd have to get an expensive filter to get any arsenic, radon or other nasty stuff out of the way. So I'm hoping to delay that as long as feasible, if not forever.

[Pat K]

My gravitational pull can lift water.
but only 2 feet let me know if that helps.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Maybe. Realtor told me it would run around $6500 and based on research it looks like the flow will be small and I'd have to get an expensive filter to get any arsenic, radon or other nasty stuff out of the way. So I'm hoping to delay that as long as feasible, if not forever.

Was this realator claim based on that piece of property, or, just a generalization?  Many wells in G are dug groundwater wells and are fairly cheap compared to drilled wells.

[Russell Kanning]

yea ... lots are not very deep and can get you plenty of water cheap
our place has water 10 feet down ... our pump only has to pull it up about 4 feet and then push it up 20-30 feet to the upstairs bathroom

if you did have to drill down a lot, i still dont see why you would have a low flow
other people have drilled wells that are 300 feet down and have a tall column of water to pull from

i also don't think me or the people that used to live here will die from bad water
the well drilling guys will have much better info on your place
maybe you can get occasional irrigation water from a very shallow well or surface water ... you shouldn't need it much, if at all

but it might be a good idea to catch rain on big roofs .... then build your house or outbuildings under them

and if you minimize your water usage, i don't see why you can't make it work. we get 40-50 inches of rain a year

[George Donnelly]

I suspect it was just a generalization re/ the well price.

Russell, you live down in the lowlands tho. I looked at a property near you and apparently half of it was wetland. I'll be up on the mountainside. According to an NH state database, most wells around my soon-to-be lot are around 500 ft and produce up to 5gpm.

Oh yeah I don't expect problems with water shortages. I'm now confident I can get more than enough water with rainwater catchment. When we first get onto the property tho we'll be camping and I want to make sure I can get enough water until such time as we can collect it from the environment.

Thanks guys!