Rain Water Obsession
So I’ve just come in from the rain. While struggling to hold an umbrella and having a flash light tucked under my arm, I collected an additional 40 gallons of water just in the past 15 minutes or so.
Collecting rain water has become this summer’s hobby (more like, obsession) of mine. It all started when I built the rain barrel a few months back. Since then I’ve created three more: two at the inlaws and an additional one here at home just today.
I have 1 1/4″ flex drain pipe used for the overflow and it just so happens to fit perfectly into the mouth of 5 gal water cooler jugs. I’ve converted five of them that my Pops gave me initially for making wine, into water storage containers in my shed – used specifically for watering the 1 yr. old trees that we have around our yard this season.
When it rains hard I take that flex drain pipe and route it into those jugs and few other buckets I have to collect some extra water. It’s amazing how much you can harvest in a single rain fall – so much so that I feel like I need more containers!!
The rain barrel I added this afternoon came from a workshop I attended two weeks ago hosted by the Lehigh Valley Water Authority. It was co-sponsored by Coca-Cola (who donated the supplies). At the workshop they gave out a 65 gallon drum along with the necessary supplies to build your own rain barrel. I took what they gave us, made some adjustments to their design, and hooked it into the already existing barrel we had.
So now I’m harvesting slightly less than 130 gallons of water. All of it mostly goes to watering our vegetable garden.
I’ve come to realize there’s something primordial about harvesting your own rain water. We’re obviously not reliant on it in any way shape or form, but the act of doing it sticks with me for some reason. Knowing that I’ve personally engineered and built something that harvests what otherwise would just be wasted, is really cool.
July 13th, 2009 at 8:19 am
I love the idea! I actually made a rain barrel a year or two ago out of a plastic trashcan. I basically cut a square hole out of the lid, applied some mesh screen from an old window I had to prevent bugs, etc from laying eggs in the stagnate water, then I cut a hole at the bottom and screwed in a brass nozzle for a hose to hook up. I ran the flexible tube from the rain spout to the screen and collected water for a good year or so. The problem I had was when it filled up, the trashcan would sag, etc. Since my 3 year old daughter ripped out the brass nozzle by accident this weekend when helping me water the garden, I am on the hunt for a more sturdy barrel. I see the type you used and I would like to try that out. Where do you advise someone can find them? I have seen them on craigslist, but it is very few and far between. Thanks, and I like the blog!