It’s been a long, dry winter. The alstromeria have given up and decided it’s spring again, sprouting up fresh leaves in just the past couple of days. And now, we have finally received some rain!

I spent some time last week getting a second cistern, Seena, hooked up. I got up on the roof and cleared out the gutter and blew the leaves and redwood cones out of the way. This morning, we got enough rain to put the new system to the test and it was found wanting.

• The pipe that takes water from our rain barrels down to the cisterns has a very reduced flow. Only a trickle is feeding into Joseph-Ann.
• The fitting between the pipe and the hose at the rain barrel is a bit leaky.
• The overflow hoses from the rain barrels have come off; ideally, they’d feed back into the downspout but at a minimum they should route overflow off the deck.
• The patch I applied to Joseph-Ann at the first hole I made to connect her up to Seena is not 100%. It has a very tiny drip. I’ve applied more caulking there, but it’s a worry.
• The pipe connecting Joseph-Ann to Seena seems to have a drip right at the fitting onto Joseph-Ann. I’ve tightened all those bits, but that’s very serious. If I can’t stop that drip, then the new capacity means nothing as it’ll all leak away by the end of spring.

So, I’ve got a bunch of plumbing to do, and of course it’s raining while I’ve got to do it. On the plus side, the rain is supposed to last for a few days, so if I get these problems sorted out there’s still a chance we can save some rain.