Happiness is a full bladder

um…water storage bladder, that is.

Water catchment is a way of life here on Big Island. In an area with 200″ of annual rainfall, it would be a crime to not take advantage of all that free water.

Our corregated steel tank is lined with a food-grade pvc liner. Liner’s lives are about 5 years.  We are due. and have had a liner in storage for a while, but have been too (lazy) busy to replace it….

DH Powerwashing the Catchment Tank

DH looked into the catchment tank yesterday and noted a low water level. We know we have some leaks…….and it is now imperative that the liner be replaced.  In other words, we need to pump out all the water in the current tank, remove the current liner, powerwash, sand, and repaint the corroded areas on the tank….replace the liner, and then wait till the tank refills.

But…the rainy season just ended. We hate to just waste the 5000 gallons of water in the tank…..so we have been looking at inflatable swimming pools to use for temporary storage.

None available on island…..

This morning when I woke at 4:15 am (damn, I need to work on my sleep schedule…..), I logged onto Craigslist, and there….

….in Mountain View (40 minutes away)

….was a man selling army surplus potable water “bladders.”

….they hold 3000 gallons of water.

…which will do.

He also turned out to be a health professional whom I had not yet met…and after spending the morning with him emptying and folding up an “on display bladder,” and “talking story,” he invited us to his Memorial Day barbeque….

So DH got a new water tank, a new Honda pump to drain from catchment to bladder (and hopefully back again) and the joy of tearing out the old and putting in the new liner.

Somewhere in there is serendipity.

And dumb luck.

…..below is a picture of our 1/4 filled “bladder.”

Onion Bladder