Can we build it?

Clearly I have been watching too much TV with our two boys, because it’s early on Monday afternoon and I can already feel myself shouting “Yes we can!”
But first, before can build anything we have to decide what we need otherwise I’ll end up like Howard Hughes and build the world’s biggest water tank but not find a roof to fill it…
For drinking water, we have two five-gallon jerry cans, one five-gallon beer keg and a five-gallon fermenting vat while plus a neighbouring farmer’s wife is filling two more jerry cans in the morning.
For the pigs and chickens, we have two 150-litre water butts with one almost full of rain water and the other a little less than half full. We can also use some of the rain water to flush the toilet from time to time, but we’ll have to be careful.
The real problem for now is getting the central heating running for more than an hour at time. While there has been little rain apart from patchy drizzle and no snow since December 29, we have had quite a few reasonably cold nights plus the little ‘un objects to having his bottom cleaned with a cold flannel and a bucket of cold water with a splash of Dettol.
With the hot water tank nowhere near full, we can only run the boiler for short bursts while we monitor the temperature gauge - once it passes 60C, the boiler has to go off. And of course we can’t use any of the hot water to wash with or the central heating will be completely unuseable.
Having decided the priority is to fill the loft tank and keep it topped up daily, the problem is relatively simply - build something to transport water to the house and pump it up to the tank…

Taking my cue from Scrapheap Challenge, I go for a walk around the steading to see what I can find, turning first of all to our livestock trailer but it’s clear this is not a workable base on which to build. No suspension, poor access to the depths of the interior once a contration is devised and no brakes (not a good idea when carrying heavy loads of water instead of one or two pigs).
Hmm, the Land Rover Defender beckons. There’s plenty of space in the back (it’s a 110 County Station Wagon) although the wheel arches limit the sideways space, the suspension is up to the job (or so I thought), and there’s already a very strong dog guard to help protect the occupants.
Some more perambulations around the steading and I return to the Defender with my finds - two 25-gallon water butts (for collecting water off the chicken house), one old pallet, assorted pieces of timber, some garden hose, two three-ton tie down straps with ratchets and some chain.
Much sawing, drilling, banging, bolting and ratcheting later, the Land Rover Defender water bowser is complete, well almost. All it needs now is a way of getting the water from the butts to the loft tank, but a solution was at hand…