About Homestead Hydro

Three years ago my partner and I left a Portland apartment for five acres in rural Oregon, and in the first summer we ran our well pump dry. Not a gradual problem — we drew it down completely, the pump started sucking air, and we spent two very humbling days hauling water in borrowed containers while our two dogs looked at us the way dogs look at you when they'd like to know whose fault this is.

Zero experience with wells. Zero experience with septic. Zero experience with any of the infrastructure a rural property actually runs on. The available information mostly assumed you already knew what you were asking about. This site is what we figured out from the ground up — a complete homestead water system built over three years, with real costs, real seasonal failures, and specific lessons from the things that broke. What worked. What cost more than we budgeted. What failed in January in ways we weren't remotely prepared for.

Not permaculture experts. Not off-grid gurus. Not people who grew up with any of this. The site covers long-term self-sufficient water systems for rural and transitioning-off-grid properties — wells, storage, filtration, gravity-fed systems, seasonal collection. Not short-term emergency prep. Not weekend camping. People making the actual transition from connected living to something else.

Find out who writes here on the author page.

Some links here are affiliate links — I earn a small commission when you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share products we've actually used on this property.