GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

brooklyn1 · 20-12-2016, 03:50 AM posted to rec.gardens

On Mon, 19 Dec 2016 16:03:29 -0600, wrote:

On Mon, 19 Dec 2016 09:40:16 -0500, Brooklyn1
wrote:

Seems to me rather than the Rube Goldberg approach 40' is no biggie to
carry a couple of buckets, especially downhill to your barn... have
you considered a wagon with a few of 5 gallon buckets... should be a
walk in the park to lug a couple empty buckets back uphill. Anyway
that's how I water shrubs and trees that're too far from a hose bib,
by pulling a cart full of buckets with my tractor, better than
dragging a few hundred feet of garden hose filled with water. My barn
is 350' from a hose bib so I lug two 1 gallon milk jugs of water every
day for watering the feral cats... I have electric in the barn but no
water, heated water bowls work fine in winter. I thought of a water
line when I had the electric cable buried but water can present
freeze-up problems in winter no matter how well thought out. It's a
lot simpler to just carry water or haul water with a cart. If you
have a small garden tractor and a cart with a bunch of five gallon
plastic contractor's buckets your problem is solved. This is all you
need, that cart will hold 10 five gallon buckets:

This dont answer my question.

What you're saying is what I do NOW.
Much of the time using a hose is just too much trouble, so I carry
buckets. Being 66 years old, this is not easy anymore. Using a cart and
/or tractor is not an option. There are 2 concrete steps between the
barn and hydrant. As winter goes on, those steps tend to ice up and
eventually becomes a ramp. I have fallen several times there already.
Those steps would ice up much less if I was not splashing water on them
while carrying buckets of water.

This is not a matter of carrying a couple gallon jugs, it's at least 12
five gallon pails every other day, and doing that this past weekend with
windchills at around 40 deg. below zero was no fun.

Installing something as I suggest, is not a major job and not costly,
I'm just trying to determine what would be the best materials to use.

I'm older than you (73) and I carry water buckets all the time...
perhaps you are too old to have horses.
From my experience living in the northern Catskills where it gets very
cold in winter I have learned that the best way to transport water in
winter is in buckets by cart... hoses/pipes are very problematic in
winter.
And you don't have far to go, 40' is nothing, I can pee 40'. LOL