On Monday, while Lisa Belanger of The Discovery Channel Canada was visiting she noticed the rainwater harvesting system I built for the garden, my chickens and someday hope to supply water to my planned backyard fish farm. I went on to explain to her how my grandparents depended on rainwater harvesting for all their water needs 50 years ago as none of the wells where they lived had water that wasn't polluted by the mining of coal and its runoff that existed where they then lived in Wise County, Virginia. Later, when Grandpa built a new house high on the hill above the coal mines he used a mountain spring for water.

Most homes in the Bahamas have rainwater harvesting systems. So do many desert homes around the world.

Today I find the rainwater harvesting system Ole Ersson installed on his home in Portland, Oregon.

Now granted, Ole's 1500 gallon system would be too small for a home in an Arizona desert or drought stricken, Greensboro, North Carolina but when properly sized a rainwater harvesting system is a viable option almost anywhere in the world. My grandparents had nothing but rainwater.

As I expand my own rainwater collection system I'm also considering a solar distillation system to purify drinking water without the use of any outside energy sources. Who knows, maybe I'll disconnect from Greensboro City water someday.