The Survival Podcast Water for Every Homestead with Ryan Steva – Epi-3818
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Mar 18, 2026 Ryan Steva, homestead consultant and educator in regenerative design and water management. He explains holistic water planning, treating water as stored energy and pressure. Short strategies include earthworks like swales and keyline, roof catchment and tank placement, low-pressure irrigation and soil-building to cut watering needs. Practical tips for planning and simple tools for resilient homesteads.
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Make Water Systems Redundant Like A Spider Web
- Create a web of overlapping water strategies so failure of one element doesn't collapse the system.
- Improve soil and mulches first so irrigation becomes secondary and your backup systems only need to top up moisture.
Charge Soil With Biochar To Hold More Water
- Add biochar to soil and compost to massively increase water holding; roughly 1 lb biochar ≈ 0.9 gallon water capacity.
- Use biochar in chicken coops or compost it first to charge it with microbes before planting.
Put Diverters High And Use Quality Filters
- Capture roof water with proper diverters placed high under the gutter and run pipe to your storage to gain pressure and suction.
- Invest in good filters like the Monjolin Smart Filter to move high volume, clean water into tanks.
