Building A Well House #1: Rubble Fill Foundation

This post is the first in a series

 for a 80" x 128", dry stack cement block, solar heated, well house we are building 

and will highlight several out of the norm methods of building.

Here we will look at the rubble fill foundation

in which the footer sits on top of a foundation of rubble 

and various size stone aggregate.

The above photo shows the form work ready for the concrete footer

which is at the top of the foundation instead of at the bottom of the trench.

Nearly Natural Hot Spring Pools

Since the last post was on man made hot spring pools 

(Concrete And Stone Hot Spring Pools),

I thought it would be nice to look at the more natural style pools.

Since most pools are altered by people in some way,

nearly natural refers to pools made with primarily natural, local materials

 and with either sand or gravel bottoms.

Above and below are pools that are dug out from the sandy banks

 along the West Fork of the Gila River in southwest New Mexico.

Concrete And Stone Hot Spring Pools

One of our favorite pursuits while traveling is looking for hot springs 

and even if you don't have a hot spring,

 you may want to build a pool and here are some ideas.

These first three photos are from a hot springs near the small town 

of Aconchi, Sonora, Mexico in the north central part of that state.

Designing And Installing A Rain Water Catchment System

We are just finishing up on a rainwater catchment system on our house

and our first big decision was what kind of tanks to use.

Of course we would have loved to have had nice galvanized tanks, 

but the reality is that the above ground polyethylene tanks we chose were more affordable, 

are easier to handle and install, are able to be moved,

 and will last much longer than the metal.

Many people go with below ground tanks but that requires different tanks,

 and the added cost of digging not to mention the disruption to the landscape,

and the added factor of pumping the water back up to the point of use.