32,000 gallon rainwater containment system–in the ground!

by Casey, Caretaker

At the beginning of October, vermillion, golden yellow, maroon leaves were cheering us on at the muddy adventure course happening by the fire pit…as you can imagine, installing a 32,000 gallon rainwater containment system requires a BIG hole! There were some long days filled with digging, assembling, carrying, and moving things, but we had fun dancing around with only socks or bare feet on the plastic water collection modules.  The donkeys were especially excited when they saw us put the finishing touches of grass seed on the refilled hole. We will be using this water that we collect off the garage roof primarily for watering the garden and taking showers.

As special thanks to Dan Chmura, the Wheaton Franciscans, and past Ethos interns, as well as Jenna and Marcus for their leadership on this ambitious project. As Eric joked, “We are probably the least qualified people who can pull this off.”

With only a few hiccups, we did it!

You may be wondering: How do you install a rainwater containment system? Get a glimpse of the process in this video created by Summer Servant Jarrett Murano.