Summer project #2

[Smiles Jr.]

Yup, my pa named the little farm here PlayStation. My dad never got old but he was young for many years. We never had the Play Station electronic game thingy in our household but dad named the place PlayStation anyway. The farm was a big one back in the day. 696 acres right here and another 270 acres across the road. In 1976 +/- the owner fell upon hard times and sold the 270 acre parcel to get out of debt. When he died his three sons split up the 696 piece and built houses on each part. In 1986 my dad bought 80 acres from one of the brothers along with the old homeplace. I now have 40 acres and my sister has the other 40 acres.

@baymule - I have a stupid phone also. It doesn't do pictures at all.

@so lucky - We do plan to use it for a storm shelter.

@journey11 - We have a very good well and county water out at the road as well as a lake just out the back door. This cistern has a very heavy duty tar-paper membrane on the concrete floor which is the ceiling of the cistern. It has always kept the moisture out of the house.

 

[Carol Dee]

@Smiles Jr. my DH would think he was in heaven with 40 Acers

 

[journey11]

Thanks for giving us a little history on PlayStation Farm, SmilesJr. I had always wondered about the name too. Can you imagine what you would do with nearly 1000 acres? Our 1 acre here with the original home is all that remains of what used to be a much larger farm too, but it was originally around 200 or so acres from what I understand. DH and I look at farmland for sale all the time (just to torture ourselves, I think). You rarely see a parcel much over 100 acres around here anymore. My grandpa owns around 900 mostly wooded acres, but he had to wait many years to buy several adjoining farms.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

I've seen one other older home that had a cistern underneath it. I don't know how common that was back in the day, but I have always wondered how that works out without causing moisture problems in the home? I don't think I'd like the *idea* of all that water under my house either. It would give me bad dreams, I think. LOL

A cistern is such a valuable resource too, having all that free water. Do you have another cistern or are you going to build another, SmilesJr? Or do you have a well, perhaps? That will make a perfect cellar though, also a very valuable resource for a self-reliant person. Can't wait to see the finished remodel.

well, i have an old well in my basement......right under my kitchen to be exact. but the house has been on city water since at least the 1930's per the city guys that had to install a new waterline to the house in 2012. they removed an old pipe that was originally put in the 1930's and the lazy city never bothered to replace them unless you called with an issue. you would think when they built the rest of my neighborhood in the 60's they would have updated everyone already on the street. cheap.....

 

[Smart Red]

Our first purchased house had a cistern in the attic. There was a waddle pump in the basement that put the water into the attic. There was lots of soft water for washing and baths.

 

[journey11]

Our first purchased house had a cistern in the attic. There was a waddle pump in the basement that put the water into the attic. There was lots of soft water for washing and baths.

This is even more fascinating to me. I can't imagine how they work out the logistics for something like that. Water is so dense and heavy. But at least you'd have gravity on your side up there for pumping it to the rest of the house. I don't imagine home insurers like it very much though.

 

[Beekissed]

All that dirt? Raised beds!!!

 

[Nyboy]

City house has city water lots of chemicals added. About 10 years ago used to get letter 3x a year sent to all water customers. Water failed safety test no plans in near future to correct I swear to god, this letter was sent out for years. County finally started getting water from another water processing plant, letters stopped coming. country house is on well and I hate it. The water used to smell so bad ( sulfur) guest would not bath while staying at house. I had to spend thousands of dollars putting in my own water purifying system. All water for NYC goes though Westchester co, after 911 the big fear was how easy it would be to poison the cities water.

 

[Smart Red]

We have a couple of areas around here that have water warnings. Restaurants in those spots have signs that say water is (slightly) unsafe for pregnant women and infants. Aside from hard water from all the limestone in the aquifer our water is great. Cities do add all the chemicals to make transportation through 100 year old pipes 'safe'. Nothing like water fresh from the well!

 

[seedcorn]

Lived in Camp Point,Illinois. There the water was salt water-too salty to drink. Original town well was radioactive. Had to go deeper, hit salt.