We’re making a big investment in our future!

We’ve decided to pull the trigger on one of the biggest investments we’ve made yet in the future of our water security on the homestead!

We call ourselves RainCatcher Homestead as rain collection has been our primary water source for a few years now. However, many of you know that our current collection system is only getting us about half the water we need to run our household, let alone support a productive homestead with plants and animals.

So, after a lot of deliberation we are going to get a metal roof on our house! While our roof is still sound and not yet in need of total replacement, we haven’t felt comfortable catching rain water for household use or food production on aging asphalt shingles as it can leach dangerous chemicals and cancer causing VOC’s into the water. While hauling water is a pain, it’s better than risking that junk getting in our bodies.

We have been exploring the option of a metal roof for years, but due to the size of the investment we had to 1) save for it and 2) be 100% committed to staying on this property if we are going to make that kind of investment in it. While putting a metal roof on our house seems like an obvious solution to catch more rain water, the first estimate we got for a metal roof on our 1200 square foot home was almost $30,000! Umm, no thanks!

I spent quite a while learning how to install metal roofing ourselves. I was sure we could do it, but Anthony isn’t willing to risk damage to our home due to our inexperience.

So, while it’s not the most homestead-y thing to hire out a big construction project, we finally got a quote we feel comfortable with and signed the contract for a high quality metal roof! We should not only be able to expand our rain catch system to collect as much as 30,000 gallons a year, but should have a forever roof that never needs to be replaced again.

Due to the high cost of appropriate water storage for that kind of quantity, it will likely be a long while before we get the collection system complete, but gotta keep moving forward now that we are committed to staying and making it work on a productive homestead.

Stay tuned for the finished roof in the months to come!