A New Rainwater Harvesting System Online on the Westside

Hello all! Once again I can’t say much because the pics speak for themselves. I just did a one day install at the home of Chris Toussaint, LA Westside permaculturist and filmmaker, said install consisting of a vinyl downspouts leading inexorably and leak-free(!) to a rain harvesting barrel provided by Sustainable Works in the City of Santa Monica… my second rainwater harvesting system. I got to see firsthand the lessons I learned from the Sugar Shack install working beautifully here, and I must say I left the work site ready to celebrate, pumping the tunes loud and hard in the hump-day traffic toward home.

As you can see in the little photo-diagram below, in the initial consultation we discussed a number of actions for optimizing passive water use on the property. Wednesday afternoon, the downspout went up beautifully; the rest may come later.

The celebratory mood came not only from the seamless installation, or from the fact that I have gained more wisdom to offer in the upcoming e-book, or from the new information we will gain from this install as it functions in months and years to come. It came also in  the recognition that this little 55-gallon system is another tiny but definitive step in the direction of freedom for all of us; after all, if everyone in LA put up a little system like this, it might be enough to give our aqueducts and maybe the Sacramento Delta or the Colorado River enough time off to regenerate the abundance they can provide for all of us.

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Thank you Chris for creating the opportunity and caring for people and planet. And thank you all for listening. I hope I’ve inspired you.

Toward a culture of abundance, ho!