Project: Replace Water Storage Tank for Centro

Hey you plumbing fanatics. I know you're out there...are you? Well I will at least pretend that you are.

First, I have to say that Brazilian plumbing is very primitive compared to the good old U.S. of A. It's kind of like it was back in the old days before such things as codes were put in place because people started getting sick. Out here in the rainforest we don't have things like pumps, pipes having to be straight or glued for that matter, etc. What we do here is run a hose up a mountain stream, make sure it is higher than the house and the water storage tank and we have potable water (sort of). It kind of looks like this-my job today:

The tank is above the house, hence water will come out of the sink, shower, toilet, etc. by gravity. The hose leading up to the top of the tank comes from the mountain stream that we talked about and all those zig-zagging pipes all over the place feed the fixtures. Pretty simple, though I don't think the Clifton plumbing inspector would be as happy as I am about the job. Everything looks pretty simple and maybe even easy, but trust me my dear friends, it is everything but. First my tools and supplies were a little lacking... take a look:

Richie Z, thanks for the leatherman. And to top it off I even had a helper:Yeah... I know what you're thinking, but he certainly wasn't my first choice.

The supply department in Iracambi wasn't too good either, but we made do with fittings with holes in 'em, and so on. My biggest tool though was my good old fashioned American ingenuity, which helped me create, invent, and improvize things to kind of work. After much toil and frustration-WE GOT 'ER DONE! (I love you baby!)

Also if you're curious, here is our sewage treatment facility- beautiful, huh?:In addition, it is also a lot of fun from swimming to relaxing on the shore to jumping in from rocks!

I am also in the process of installing a solar water heating system, which you will have to wait for in the upcoming blogs. Till we meet again my good friends.