This has made life a lot easier, a little more complicated sometimes, and overall an investment worth making.
We were at the little feed store in Peru, IN because it is the only one around that carries the chicken food we use. Because we have “Not Our Dog” and he can come in the feed stores, we take advantage of that and walk him around. We are teaching him commands for things like left, right, sit, stay, and also giving him mental stimulation by letting him interact with other people and experience new places. In that walk we went past a display of spray tanks. We have often joked when we saw the town water trucks that we needed something like that to make watering easier up here on the hill. That’s when I saw the price, $69.99 and I think it was on sale that day for even less. You have my attention. It was an impulse buy. We have had it for more than a year now and I still love it. There are things that I wish were a little different, some of them are of our own doing, and some just are.
Things I love:
- When it is empty it is very easy to move around. The tank itself is not heavy and it has something akin to handles on the two sides which make it easier to handle. It’s not just a cylinder that you have to body hug to move around.
- The hose on the spray wand is long. I tow it in the cart behind the tractor. From my seat I can grab the wand and water everything. IF I need to get off the tractor, like I will need to do to get the pumpkins, I will have enough hose to walk close to the bags to water.
- The power cord is long so you can reach the tractor engine.
- It fits in our lawn cart. It takes up about half the room in the cart so even if I need to haul other things around while I’m watering, I can. I put the tank in empty and fill it while it is inside the cart. That way I don’t have to try and haul a full tank up and in. Although I did discover that if the cart was taken off the tractor with the tank full of water, trying to move the cart back to the tractor to hook it up was difficult. I usually water till the tank is empty, Bill not so much.
- The cap is pretty easy to get off and on for filling and it stays connected to the tank so I’m less likely to loose it.
- I do not typically have any issue with being able to empty the tank when using it.
- I can pretty easily get everything watered on one tank but I have gone through two tanks of water. I started watering the inground plants and since I now have access to water I have added more plants further away from hoses. You can see how this problem is just going to keep getting bigger.
- I no longer have to fill up kitty litter containers with water and haul them around. Don’t get me wrong the lawn cart made this easier too. I would fill up five or so of them and I could mix fertilizer in them, load them in the cart with their caps on and water everything. It was more work but the job got done and I was not adding more plants further away so maybe in the long run this system was better over all. lol.
- It runs off engine power so I’m not having to keep pumping it up to keep pressure in the tank or replacing batteries all the time.
Things that might not be so great:
- The wand hose is long. I know I put this in the pro list as well. The issue is if I’m not careful it falls down on the ground and I have to watch so I don’t run it over or wrap it around a wheel, which I have done.
- The power cord is long. Again I know I put this in the pro list. It’s great but it’s also a bummer. I admit I use the mower sometimes as a riding leaf blower. We get a lot of tree gunk on the driveway. Since I’m going up and down the driveway to water I turn on the mower which blends up the gunk and blows it off the pavement. Not perfect but in a pinch it’s okay. What I have done is run over that long cord which quickly brought watering to a halt until a repair could be done. Now that I have created that weak link it apparently is going to continue to be a problem because just the other day when I went to water the tape must have come loose and the entire severed end of the connection was missing. I did find it and luckily I did not run it over with the mower.
- The wand connection to the hose randomly comes loose and you end up taking a shower. On hot days when I’m not fertilizing that can be counted a gift. On days when I have fertilizer in the water or when it is slightly cooler it’s not so much fun. Also around the fifth time it happens even if it’s hot it gets old. That’s when I have to just give up trying to quick fix it and go get a tool and really fix it.
- Because I now water more often than before the tank tends to just stay in the cart all summer long. Which is a pain when you have other things to do and you need the cart. I can’t lift it out of there till the water is gone.
- When the tank is not in the cart you need to have a place to store it. It is fairly large and so far we haven’t come up with a good storage solution. It has spent the winters in the garage on the floor or up on a bench. This winter we need a different solution since we now have a second car being parked in said garage.
- It needs a power source, again I know this was also in pro list. Hear me out, I have to have the tractor in order to water. There are a few places that I would like to be able to water that I cannot get close enough to with the tractor. So for those places I’m still hauling buckets of water,
- A big one, maybe the plastic and rubber. Is it food safe? Will it break down over time? I use it to water ornamental plants, ever the pumpkins are for us ornamental. If there is anything negative to be leached into the water table only time will tell that. But other than the new additions that are planted in the ground most of my watering has been done in flower pots. It is branded as being most commonly used for weed and pest spray. Since watering is not listed specifically it probably bears a little more research. For what we use it for I’m okay and all the ornamental potted plants say thank you.
So how does it all work? Remember this is how we have it hooked up. Read the directions, talk to the manufacturer of your mower or tank if you have concerns or questions. Anytime you work with anything electrical take all safety precautions to keep you and your equipment safe.
Don’t look at how dirty it is inside the engine area, Bessie is a mess. I just finished cleaning the driveway and I’m not sure which one of us was dirtier. The motor on the water tank gets it’s power from the battery on the tractor.
 |  |  |
I don’t know if it would drain the battery but after using the water tank I always make sure to turn the toggle to off and then unhook the quick connect.
You can see the toggle here, if the switch is flipped to off, the power to the water tank is off and it will not pump water. Flip it to on and you can use the water wand. Above that you can see the quick connect/disconnect. This portion of the wiring stays attached to the battery at all times. The way it came you had to hook it to the battery when you wanted to use it and unhook it when you were done. For us it made sense to make that process a little easier because I use this thing sometimes every day in the summer. The downside to this setup is that the cord is long so it can reach to the trailer. It is always in the way and when I’m not being careful it slips into the steering wheel column and I have to work it back out again and check for damage, or it can fall down, or you trip over it getting on or off the tractor. or it gets in the way of the power lever or the key. It’s there all the time even if you are not using the tank so you always have to watch out that your not going to damage it. One idea I’ve had on how to make this better is to use a Velcro loop so that I can wind up the cord when not in use and attach it to a safe space.
This is the other end that stays attached to the tank
. You just plug the two ends together and you’re good to go. The end that stays attached to the tank is also long so you need to watch to make sure it is not hanging down on the ground while you are using it because it can get under a wheel of the trailer or the back wheel of the tractor and then get wrapped up and damaged. I actually caught it with the mower once and severed the back line. The fix was done and it lasted for a long time, until this year. I went to use the tank for the first time and realized the piece with the on/off toggle and connector were gone, just gone. I thought that somehow I had run it over again and this time I lost the whole piece. I hauled out my buckets and did my watering that way. All the while trying to think of how I was going to explain this to Bill. As I was clearing the driveway behind the garage I looked back and what to my wondering eyes did appear? Did you guess 8 tiny reindeer? If so you’re silly. No, I saw the missing piece of wire with all the connectors and switches in tact. It looks like the repair had just pulled apart. 
This is how the wand attaches to the flexible rubber hose. This hose is long and that’s great but it can also be a problem. I’ve had the hose hang down and get caught by a wheel. Or either the water hose or electric line can get caught under the water tank. Not a problem if you realize that before filling the tank, if you don’t catch it. that tank gets heavy and getting anything out from under it takes some effort. Several times I’ve had the hose pull off the wand. When that happens you end up taking an unexpected shower. Often I can just jam the two back together again but sometimes that fix doesn’t last and it just keeps coming apart. When that happens I need to admit defeat and go up to the shop and get the tool I need to actually tighten it enough to fix it.
You can see how well that tank fits in the trailer. That trailer by the way has been wonderful. I love that thing so much. When we first moved here we had a wheelbarrow and a push mower and I was a younger woman. After the fire, where both were lost, we ended up buying the riding mower and this trailer. I am not even sure how I lived before getting those two things. Any who, there is enough room in the trailer that I can fit other items in.
 |  |
The fertilizer I’ve been using is water soluble and I use it in containers for flowers. The one I’m using now was made by Purdue University for a local greenhouse but they all pretty much so measure the same. A cup of fertilizer for a tank of water and one tank pretty much so can get everything. As more areas have been planted I can go through 1 or 2 tanks and I try to fertilize once a month. Although this year I’m stepping up my game and shooting for once a week at least in the planters.
As for how much water per plant it depends. We have not had any real rain in what feels like several weeks and it’s been hot and sunny. So for my large containers I sit there and count to 100. The smaller containers 12″ or so I count to 50, same with any plants in the ground. If we have had rain or the temps have not been soul crushing I’ll just count to 50/30 respectively. It’s not scientific it’s just best guess and since I water frequently and everything seems to be doing okay. I’m not going to fix what doesn’t appear to be broken.
How do we fix the issue with the hoses or electric lines and keeping them from getting caught on things? I’m not 100% sure which is why we still have the issue. Truth is while I’m using it I’m thinking actively about it but too busy to fix it. When I’m done I’m on to the next task and tired. It keeps falling off my radar which means it’s annoying but not a big enough deal for me to deal with. If I run it over again or get a hose stuck around a wheel axel I will probably make the time to figure it out. Maybe Velcro or some kind of loop that I can hook to the trailer which will hold the two lines up out of harms way?
The garage will no longer be available to store the tractor, trailer or water tank because it now has a vehicle in that bay. Is that a bad thing? Yes and no. Yes, in that it was so easy to just pull them in and pull them out and everything was out of the elements and safe. The dirt and gunk that got dragged into the garage and potentially in the house was a bummer. If you had to take the dog out via the garage because there was a 10 cat pile up on the front porch it was also a bummer because it got very messy and there wasn’t much room. Did coming in and seeing the chaos of what that bay would look like sometimes bother me, oh yea it did. It’s like the garage sets the mood for the home. Even the dog would sometimes hesitate to get out of the Jeep, like dang lady where exactly do you think I’m supposed to jump out of here at? The other day I had opened that door and left it open, Pete’s car was gone because he was at work. I happened to look in there and thought man that’s nice, so clean. It made me happy, so I think this is an opportunity to be better.
What we did do was something we have been talking about for a few years. The area behind the She Shed, between the Littles chicken run and the garden fence is an area that just grows weeds. We talked about making the She Shed bigger, extending her into that area. Then we could park everything in there, just finish building it out. It had a roof and just needs to be framed like a pole barn and we can put sides on. While we have not started that project we did get landscape fabric down and the pop up tent that we got to do outdoor shows is now over there. Weed free, large parking pad for the tractor and the trailer and more. Not completely weather proof but it’s good. The tank either sits inside the trailer or gets put on the ground back there. What I want to do is either have a shelf it can sit on or have a hanging system on the wall. Life is a work in progress and most of the time we are figuring out what we need as we need it. Half the time the need changes and we are figuring it out all over again. While there are lots of changes happening and we are reinventing spaces so far everything has been for the better and we are both thrilled with how it’s going. Just today I was in the She Shed using the inventory system to catalog all of our plant care products and putting them in the metal cabinet we just took out of the shop. Didn’t see that coming even 5 months ago but I’m loving it.
