Dirt Merchant Farms Has No Water

I know you probably see tons of these campaigns. I have seen them for everything from expensive potato salads, to paying for health care, to even creating artwork.

Our goals are far smaller than these. 

We simply want water from our well.

Water use on a national average: 

On average, a typical family of four (4) uses water as follows:

Inside Use Gallons per Day:
- Bathing 80
- Bathroom sink 8
- Cooking and drinking 12
- Dishwashing 15
- Laundry 35
- Toilets 100
- Utility sink 5

Total family use 255* (doesn't include outside watering)

Average water use for inside facilities:
- Bathtub 25 to 35 gallons per tub
- Clothes Washer 25 to 50 gallons per load
- Dishwasher 7.5 to 16 gallons per load
- Shower 5 to 15 gallons per minute
- Toilet Old - 3.5 to 7 gallons per flush
- Toilet New - 1.5 gallons per flush



 

My name is Jesse Alexander, and my fiancé is Naomi Borowick. We live in Stagecoach, NV. We need your help to drill a new well for our small off grid Earthship style organic farm located at:

10940 Geurts Ln.
Stagecoach, NV 89429
(You can see the tires on Google Earth)

We moved out onto our farm in 2012. We raise organic chickens and ducks. We are also moving into our own heritage breed pork breeding program and have started a podcast network to help advertise and spread our creativity and skills. We are slowly expanding as our structures get completed. Our hoop house is waiting for it's last coat of cement before we can begin using it for production. We are past the bond beam on 1 of our 2  modified Earthship huts. Only requiring cement to start the roof and finish the plastering, 

We are building several small earthship style structures and greenhouses on the farm. Attempting to make a completely carbon neutral farm in the next few years. I have all the materials needed to build them. We simply need water to create cob and cement to do the finishing touches and complete these buildings.

If you've ever had a large file download stop at 89% complete. You  know how we feel right now. We have finished filling and pounding the initial 280 earth rammed tires, I also placed over 1000 more tires that are waiting for a cob covering. These 1000+ tires will become adobe covered pasture walls. 2 to be precise. Enough to keep out the wild horses and allow me to expand to over an acre of usable protected fields.

--So here's what happened:

Over the last few years we were using a small well brumby or bojohn pump(an air-water displacement pump)  that was left from the previous occupant. Our 220v submersible pump that had never worked, due to theft of parts during the unoccupied 5 year period before we arrived. Is still sitting at the bottom of our well, and wasn't able to be brought up for inspection. Something we weren't worried about, thankfully we had 2 pumps. 

in July 2014, our only usable well pump failed. Upon removal we noticed that the water level had dropped drastically(about 20') in the 10 years since that pump was installed by the last owner. Upon inspection the air line leading down had ruptured at a fitting and sent highly compressed air out like a water hose. Cutting into the exposed well wall. This sent debris down to the bottom of the well, sanding the electric pump over. Preventing us from removing the old 220v pump and placing the new solar powered SimplePump into the existing casing. 

To add insult to injury, when we a well company come out to pull the 220v pump. the pipe down snapped. Leaving 20ish feet off PVC pipe attached to the submersible pump. They charged us almost $500, and left us in worse shape than we were in.

We already purchased the new solar powered SimplePump well pump. It's ready to go into the casing the minute the well is finished. I also already have the 24v solar system as we are an off grid farm. Once water is available I can complete the 2000 gallon tire and cement water cistern that needs to be cob covered and cemented in. Everything we have left to do requires water.

We have been quoted several times by well drillers. All experienced drillers said we need a new well all together. They quoted the cost to fix the original well at $7,000 - $10,000. Leaving us with the choice to pay the same amount to fix a well that needs to be extended, or drill a new well altogether. 

--We need your help to do these things:

-Drill a new well on the property estimated cost: $10,000
-Parts and Pieces for connecting the solar well pump and creating shelter for the pump and solar panel mounting estimated cost $1,000

This new well will be able to provide us with the ability to bathe, do laundry, allow for a duck pond, allow for a wallow for our pig, and continuous capability to produce building material for our earthship style projects.

Until this goal is accomplished I will be hauling water. Bringing it to my animals and myself by 5 gallon bucket. I have been able to cut my farm water use to 200 gallons every week. But this leaves us with having to shower and do laundry at our relatives and friends houses. We are lucky that we use a composting toilet. That saves us thousands of gallons a year. 

That's right folks. We have a WEEKLY farm water use equal to about the same as an average household in the USA. Total human use per week is down to 2 gallons a day on our farm. The bulk of our water is for the animals and trees. 

--Here's the timeline I have envisioned:

Our landscape and orchard will be completely dead between May 2015 and the end of summer.

If the well isn't fixed by November 2015, we will have to stop any production and cull our production animals(approx. 50 heritage breed chickens, ducks, and turkeys).

Our newest organic fed pork program will be set back another whole year. Breeding wouldn't begin until late 2016 if not 2017.

All this can be avoided with the help of the you and the internet. You can help us by sharing our story with the world. The more people that share this along, the more people that may be able to afford a donation can see this page. Even if you don't donate, please just share this on your social media platforms. Getting this shared with everyone possible, would make a world of difference to us.

#EveryoneDeservesAShower and #200GallonChallenge are our hashtags.

If you think you can do it, I challenge you to live on 200 gallons a week. It will open your mind to what we go through here at Dirt Merchant Farms. You will have to radicallly change the way you live, think, and plan. If you do attempt it, please keep a video diary and let us know how you did.

If we can just find 11,000 people to donate $1, or 550 people to donate $20. Our continuing dream of continuing our organic earthship farm can continue.

Remember...

#EveryoneDeservesAShower

Thank you for your time, and may your life be blessed for helping us spread the word.

Any offline donations can be mailed to:
Jesse Alexander
10940 Geurts Ln.
Stagecoach, NV 89429





Thank you for taking a second to help us.

Jesse and Naomi
Dirt Merchant Farms