It has long been a dream of ours to capture rainwater from some of our metal roofs on the farm, but rainbarrels couldn’t handle it and resources didn’t allow anything more.

Then the Organic Fruit Growers Association opened up an opportunity. A cohort of farmers could study climate change and apply climate mitigation projects to their farms.

We jumped at the chance and thanks to them, we now have a 1,550-gallon rainwater recapture system attached to our new barn. It comes with a pump so we can fill the bladder in the back of our Polaris “Moby” and water trees in the orchards.

Climate change in Iowa is already here. It manifests itself in heavy storms in the Spring and then long periods of drought. We’re hoping this water will allow us to save our well for home use and stored rainwater for the orchards when they most need it.

Here’s the tank, with our 80-lb Chilly in front for scale. You’ll see to the left toward the top a leaf filter and directly below that a pipe that collects the “first flush” off the roof. This keeps most of the bird poop and dirt that has accumulated on the roof from going into the tank. A ball inside of it rises as it fills and then blocks it off to redirect the rest of the water into the tank.

This angle showed the pump with its cover.