The water tower was one of Roy’s first projects at the property. It was erected as a reservoir for the water from the ram pump. The tank itself is a 275 gallon plastic cube with a metal frame. These are used for a variety of  liquids, so you have to be careful what it previously contained if you want to use it for watering gardens or livestock.  Ours was used for soap, which seems to be very common.  

Roy built a temporary frame to hold it for the test run, and after it was functioning well, he built a post and beam frame out of sweet gum for the permanent tower. The ram pump pushes water up the hill to the tower through a PEX pipe and into the container. There is also an overflow on the side running into an old cooler. The overflow was to keep pressure off of the system, but we ran it into the cooler instead of on the ground, so we could use it for washing up.

Once the water is in the tower, it runs out through a hose that runs to the garden. We have the option of letting it flow continuously, or closing the valve and using it only when we need it. The garden is below the tower, so all we need is gravity for the water to flow.