Food Church Property, named Selah, of southern New Mexico is aiming to operate entirely on existing resources from the immediately surrounding lands. The estimated annual rainfall is 10″ / year and Selah aims to support its inhabitants and plant life with rainfall catchment & storage. Selah is in its 3rd year of development and first year as a Food Church property. Food Church Visioneers arrived for September of 2024 with initial goals of observation and planning of future projects.
One of the most immediate needs for the property was to increase the rainfall catchment. Selah already had almost 2,000 gallons of available water storage capacity and an existing catchment of around 100 gallons / 1″ of rainfall. There was also an available supply of recycled corrugated tin sheets for roofing, and Lead Visioneers Aaron & Sarah were able to assist the Village Visioneer, Lindsey, onsite with the build of this project. The structure will eventually be a storage shed that would house a locally-found set of scrapped cabinets, the winter wood pile and other supplies. Using locally harvested piñon and ponderosa trunks, the floor and walls were framed. The floor was then filled in with more wood logs and cob (water + dirt + dead leaves to make cement) until the floor was complete. Read more about this process here.
The rest of the new structure was then framed with more posts so the tin roof could be supported, and gutters could be installed. Since the water catchment was already partially in place from a neighboring structure, we added the gutters first to ensure the roof tiles would be sloped and positioned properly.
The tin panels were attached, then the gutters given final adjustments to ensure for the least amount of spillage when the rain comes off the roofing tiles.
The end product took a few days of further observation (when the first rainfall came) and more adjustments to the gutters. The collection tanks were also walled in for winter heat-retention.
Selah’s Annual Stored Rainwater Catchment is now an estimated 2,090 gallons!
Formula: square feet of roofing x .623 x inches of rain
(11) 8′ x 3′ roof panels = 264 sq ft; + (3) 12′ x 2′ roof panels = 72 sq ft. Total: 336 sq ft of roofing
336 sq ft x .623 = 209 stored gallons / 1″ rain, and 10″ of rain estimated per year at this location.
Selah also has additional roof catchments that are feeding several garden spaces, terraces and holding ponds (rainwater which is not used for human consumption):
Panels: 8′ x 18′, 10′ x 2′, 15′ x 3′, 8′ x 4′, 10′ x 4′, 8′ x 3′ = 144 + 20 + 45 + 32 + 40 + 24 = 305 sq ft x .623 = 190 earth-feeding gallons / 1″ rain.