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Posts Tagged ‘Water’

Heaven help us!

Posted in Home, tagged , , on June 12, 2018| 6 Comments »

Yes, a rant is coming up.

We have our own well.  We paid dearly to have the water diviner come and identify the best spot to dig the well.  We paid for the people to come drill many many feet down and connect the pumping system.  We installed the water filtration system.  We have lived happily with our lovely fresh water for 12 years.

Bath time

Then the filtration system packed up.  It seems that most things these days only have a life span of 10 years!  Lots of ‘stuff’ has needed replacing this year.

I digress.

Back to the water system….

Did you know there is a grant of 75% available to install/upgrade water filtration systems?

We did not know this, but discovered this gem of information when talking to one company.  Happy days.

We downloaded the relevant application form for Tipperary, and started going through the various processes.  Tedious but not onerous.

  • get water tested…. tick
  • complete application form ….. tick
  • get quotes from 3 different companies ….. tick
  • get water tested again after fitting of new system …..

We were told that there can be a 6 week delay in getting approval, but if you hand deliver your application it can be processed quicker.

So yesterday morning Alfie drove to Nenagh, handed over the documentation.  Person on counter said that we should get immediate approval, but she’d have colleague call us to confirm.

And here it is folks…..

The colleague called and said we don’t qualify for the grant.

Why?

We are too close to the road, and should connect up to mains water!

Now here’s the thing…. our neighbours are often on ‘boil’ notices for their water.  When this happens where do they go for their water????

They come here for our well water, and are most welcome to.  We have an outside tap and they help themselves.

So now the County Council wants us to use mains water?  And, by the way, the cost (to us) would be treble what a water filtration system will cost us.

As I say heaven help us!  We are willing to look after and maintain our own water system.

And then today it is announced that the government is giving Irish Water millions to upgrade/repair/clean the Irish  water supply system which is in a disgraceful state.

There is so much more that could be said …

but for now rant over.

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Water, water everywhere

Posted in Home, tagged , on October 15, 2010| 3 Comments »

Today 15th October is Blog Action day and the theme is water…..

I’ve never signed up to write about anything before….

In Ireland water is everywhere and that means every place and anywhere…and boy do we have lots of water… but that’s just IT we never think about water. We have lots of rain, almost very day, so we don’t think about it… water isn’t a problem….. but it is….

Once winter comes we spend some (maybe we should more) time thinking about heat, heat loss, and energy conservation, fuel bills, etc.

Farmer Alfie and I are lucky where we live, we have our own well which gives us our own good clean water (we know we’ve had it tested)…but guess what, we live in rural Ireland where our neighbours don’t have the same privilege…. yes, here in rural Ireland people don’t have clean, drinkable water! How bad is that?  In 21st century Ireland it is taken as a given…. but it isn’t… our neighbours are coming daily to take of our water.  I am glad to give it…. but it is still wrong in a 21st century society that my neighbours do not have access to clean drinking water!

We (Farmer Alfie & I) are lucky.  We bought this house 7 years ago. The previous owner didn’t buy into the ‘group’ scheme so we are on our own well.  Right now that’s just not good for us but also good for our neighbours who have had a ‘BOIL’ notice on their water for the past 6 weeks…… how’s that for a 1st world country.  Six weeks is a long time… but we don’t have a high population so they let us stew!

We try our best in this house to be conservative in our use of everything…. gas, electricity, fuel. etc.  Water is something we don’t think about too much… we live in Ireland, it rains a lot, our garden gets flooded…. why think about water….

Until we have friends or family, particularly from Austrailia, stay, where there are so many water restricti0ns… and boy you should hear them have a shower (I say ‘hear’ that cos I’m not in there with them)…. but 2 people can have a shower in the time it takes one Irish person to have one.   Also listening to them talk about gardens and lack of water so you cannot grow anything….do we need to listen more.

And this makes me think…. this year we had an incredibly wet spring, and then an incredibly dry period… so should I have watered my seedlings… I think I should have done so (I didn’t)…. I had very few peas, and a few beans and my fig tree hardly fruited at all…. I know it was to do with the fact that I didn’t water…  so

What do we compromise on… water  v air miles…water is not something everyone has, does my saving and conserving here make a difference elsewhere…. would love to have other opinions?

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