A Tail Of Two Rain Barrels

Rain barrels are not cheap. When we decided to put them up around our house, we talked about different ways to do it. We knew where we could get those white plastic 55 gallon drums for $15, and decided to try it with one of those. The result was our first prototype.

It's not pretty. (smile)


But it is very functional. It is of course linked up with the downspout via PVC pipe and various connectors. One downside to the barrel that we hadn't anticipated is the lids of these are permanently sealed on, and the only openings are two 2" openings in the lids, which both have threaded caps to close them up. Although it turned out to be more of a bonus than a downside, as we were able to use those openings for our rain barrel use without having to hassle with cutting holes in the barrel (at least not at the top; the spigot at the bottom is another story, for another time). PVC pipe comes in a 2" diameter, which we were able to connect directly into those pre-made openings easily. The in-flow pipe from the downspout goes into one, and we used the other for an overflow.



Initially I questioned whether the overflow, having it's PVC pipe actually rising up out of the barrel, then making a turn and angling down the way it does, would work. I was concerned that instead of acting as an overflow, the water would not have the pressure to rise up through that pipe, and would instead just back up in the downspout. I was mistaken. The pressure of that much water (when the barrel is full - obviously, the only time the overflow matters) easily forces it right up out of that pipe. And it follows the overflow pipe instead of backing up into the downspout because the overflow pipe is the path of least resistance - it's easier for the water to make it up over that small obstacle and then flow down and out, than it is to back all the way up a 45 degree pipe to the downspout.

I guess it's a matter of physics (not my strong point) - water's only going to rise to the highest level at which it can be contained, which in this system is the top of the overflow pipe, not up the downspout.


Right now the overflow pipe just kind of hangs there, and is directed out into the front yard (away from the house foundation - important!) by way of the black flex pipe. We intend to fix that, using a U-shaped connector to run the overflow pipe down alongside the barrel, then along the ground out to the yard, so it looks a little nicer - just didn't get that far yet.

But more importantly, due to the volume of water that is collected here, we intend to install at least one, and hopefully two more rain barrels at this location, connected together, so the overflow only kicks in after all three barrels are full - thereby wasting far less of our rain water collection potential. That's a project for next spring, however. This was, like I said, the prototype to see if this would even work.

The support for the pipe coming from the downspout is going to be fixed too. It wasn't supposed to be a piece of chain,we had something else rigged up, but it failed, and since we needed something quick on the spur of the moment (this was getting installed in the middle of a storm, ironically enough), Greg just threw this piece of chain on it. We'll do something a little nicer with that when we re-set this up next spring, as well.

The advantage of the downspout draining directly into this PVC pipe is we catch every drop of water coming out of that downspout. ( We did save the cut-off piece of downspout, so we can re-connect it to the in-ground drain pipe when we take this down in the fall. Or, we could use the same PVC pipe in a different configuration, too.)

But, as I said, even when the barrel is leveled and the overflow pipe is fixed and the chain replaced, the whole system isn't going to be all that asthetically pleasing. That's fine with me for most locations around the house. And it's economical - the barrel cost $15, and the various pieces of pipe and connectors cost maybe $25 to $35.

But when it came to the rain barrel by the garage, I wanted something that looked nicer, because it's much more in plain view. So I decided to spring for a store-bought rain barrel for this location.

It cost $100, and I'm not nearly as impressed with it's functionality.

For starters, it uses a diverter system attached to the downspout, which is supposed to function as both the inflow and overflow. When the barrel gets full, the water's supposed to simply bypass the barrel and continue on down the downspout.


Problem is, the diverter system looks like this on the inside.




There is a large opening in the center, then a channel around the inside edge. The downspout edges fit down into that channel, leaving the whole center open to continue on down the downspout and not divert to the rain barrel. When we were installing this, at first we couldn't figure out how that was supposed to work.

Then, it dawned on me - or so I thought. In anything but the most torrential of downpours, rain probably wouldn't come down the downspout in a big solid "tube of water" in the center of the downspout. It would tend to cling to the inside surface of the downspout, and run down the sides that way (on the inside). So the channel in the diverter made sense - when the rain running down the inside surfaces of the downspout hit the diverter channel, it would be funneled into the hose which would carry it to the barrel. When the barrel was full, and the hose filled up, that water would have no where to go but to overflow the channel and continue on down the downspout.

So far so good. Except it's kind of flawed.

It rained Wednesday night, not a big storm or downpour, but a pretty good 10 or 15 minutes of steady rain. I went out to see how the barrel did. I was delighted to find it almost 1/3 full - just shy of the spigot (which is too high up, another design flaw) - so though there's water in it, it's not even useable yet. But it did work and it wasn't a very big rain, so that was good.

Problem was, while I was standing there, I could still see some water trickling out of the end of the downspout. The diverter system wasn't catching it all, and that was in a light rain. I can imagine that in a heavier rain a lot more rainwater would be escaping down the downspout.

Okay, it's probably not that big a deal - it looked like a small amount of water - except for two things.

First, when I initially considered rainwater collection barrels, I didn't take it all that seriously because I completely underestimated the amount of water a roof sheds during a rain. I really thought it would be such a minimal amount as to be barely worth the trouble, if you didn't live some place where it rained all the time. I based this in part on seeing the water coming out of the downspout after a rain, which looked like a small amount to me. I was incredibly wrong, as our first rainbarrel filled almost half-way the first time it rained after we installed it. I have practically drained the barrel watering my plants, then the very next time we had a decent rain, the barrel would be full or almost full again. It has really surprised me.

So I no longer underestimate just how much water what looks like 'a little trickle' can add up to be.

Second, if I'm going to have rainwater collection system, I'd like to collect as much as possible. Obviously the barrels only fill when it's raining, so when we get those weeks with no rain, I'd like as much backup water available as possible. I don't like 'wasting' any of it!

Also, one unique problem I have is that I have things planted underneath the awnings, which mean that they often get no natural watering from rain at all - unless it rains really hard and soaks the whole bed, or the rain is slanting in somewhat. In light but steady rains, those back areas under the awnings remain dry. Which means that some of those plants are going to rely on nothing but rainwater-barrel-water to get watered at all - which means I need all that I can get.

So it kind of bugs me that for $100 it's not collecting all the rain water. The homemade PVC pipe version does collect every drop of the water.

We may look into modifying the store-bought barrel next year. I can still use the barrel, as it's nicer to look at, but modify it's diverter system to something closer to what we set up on the other downspout, with a PVC 'funnel' and pipe to capture all the water.

Or, I could consider a way to capture the water coming out of the bottom of the downspout and divert it directly to the plants behind the awning drip line. That's a thought. But - why over-engineer it.

This is the only place I am concerned about using a commercial rain barrel. There are several other locations around the house that are destined to be future homes of rain barrels, but they are all out of sight enough that I am not planning on using store-bought barrels for those . We'll continue on with our $15 barrels and PVC pipe arrangement. So this is the only one I have to rig to work better.

But we probably will be adding one more (store-bought, 'pretty') rain barrel here as well. There's a very large expanse of roof right here that only has this one downspout, so the water collection potential here is too great to pass up. But the system to hook them together is far more effective than the original diverter system - just running a piece of hose between the two - so that shouldn't need any fixing.

So that's the story of two rain barrels. The store-bought version probably cost about twice as much (though you might be able to make a home-made one even cheaper depending on what you already had on hand). It does look considerably nicer, but I'm far more impressed with the functionality of our homemade system, and am astounded by the amount of water it collects.

Some time I'll do another post on the lower half of the rain barrels - how we rigged our hose system to make the best use of the collected rainwater, and probably how we're going to lower the height of the spigot on the store-bought barrel to be more efficient.

It's Almost Pennsic - Why Am I So Calm?

Most years I would be in a state of mild panic about now. The two weeks prior to the weekend I get to go to Pennsic (middle weekend) are usually spent in a last-minute frenzy, with a 'to-do' list several pages long.

This year? Not so much. I'm feeling rather unhurried and unfrazzled about the whole thing.

Makes me wonder what I forgot.

I still have to sew elastic into the sleeves of one chemise, but that'll take half an hour this weekend.

I still have to finish cooking for Tyler, but I have that 2/3 done, so that's no biggie.

I have to gather up my own personal stuff, pack it, and get it in the truck - but that's a one-evening job, and can't be done till next Thursday anyway.

It's like ... you mean I have a whole week to do whatever I want? I don't have to run around like mad trying to get ready?

What did I forget?

Well ... it could well be that after 10 years I'm finally figuring out how to do this right. I've learned to cut out the extraneous, take only what I really need and will actually use, do only what absolutely must be done, and not try to cram 96 chores into 8 days or so. It's quite a liberating feeling!

Now the hard part starts, though - tomorrow my boyfriend will be out at the parking lot party, and there for the duration. And I have a week of mundane to slog through yet, before I can head out. That's rough, and always makes for a difficult week.

But at least I can be bummed peacefully, instead of bummed and also running around in a panic trying to finish 96 chores in the next week.

Hmm ... what to do with myself. Maybe I still have time to make one more piece of garb ...

Big Progress! Huzzah!

I got two major projects done today, which makes me very happy.

First, I finally got the fence finished - as in, actually put up (attached to the posts) instead of just leaning there.


That was a whole lotta fun. Attaching the top cross-pieces wasn't that bad, but the bottom ones? With those shrubs in front of them? Well, to get to one of them, I had to crawl on my belly underneath the shrubs, and then the fence was too close to the shrub base for the drill (being used as a screwdriver) to fit, so I had to put the screws in more than half-way by hand. What a pain!

But it's done. Yay, yay, a thousand yays. I didn't paint the metal post-holders, I was debating on it, but didn't ... I'm figuring in future years, when I have plants growing in front of them, they won't really show anyway.

The second thing was the new rain water barrel.



I wanted the one in this part of the garden to be the commercial, 'prettier' one since it will show so much more. I don't really like the design of this (not the physical design, but the way it's designed to work) so it'll be interesting to see how well it does. I also know the spigot's WAY too high up the side - it's supposed to be 55 gallon capacity, but with the spigot that far up, you only have access to 2/3 of the water it holds. If it works well otherwise, we may lower that spigot next year.

That was it ... but after going to Gander Mountain for seam sealer, the grocery store, the bank, getting gas in the truck, then doing all that - it was a day.

I'm still hoping, after a bit of a rest, to get back to gathering up some Pennsic stuff. Even though I have plenty of time (!) I figure it can't hurt to start now. Since I won't be going out for two weeks, I have more time right now than those (like Greg) who are going out this coming Friday for the duration, and I seem to have little to do this year! A miracle!

All my stuff's up in the Imaginarium, jumbled about, needing organized, but all there. I don't have any more garb to make (at least, I'm not going to attempt to make any more at this point), I've already bought all my Pennsic food (been buying a few things each week for awhile now so I don't have to make some big last minute grocery store trip) ... the only really time-consuming thing I still have to do is cook Tyler's food in advance. I don't know, it's looking way too easy this year. Makes me wonder what I forgot.

Catching Up

I haven't been posting much lately. Bunch of reasons. I've been having trouble for awhile getting online at home. Our wireless modem is in the basement, and though I can get a good signal there, I can't anywhere else in the house. Greg thinks the netbook's antenna is just too weak. I don't know - I used to be able to get online from anywhere in the house and even outside, and I still can early in the morning like this, when I'm the only one awake. As soon as he gets up and fires up his computer, I can no longer maintain a signal. I argue that his computer is hogging it all. Regardless, I may be fixing it - I ordered a USB wireless booster antenna this week from Amazon, so hopefully that'll help.

But since I got the Droid, I don't even fire up the computer nearly as often as I used to. I use the Droid for everything - I am madly in love with that phone. I know I can email blog posts directly from the phone, but I haven't done that as much as I thought I would. While the slide-out keyboard works great, it is tiring to use it for long ranty posts like I tend to write.

It's been Purge and Sort month. The mess this place was becoming was finally on my last nerve, so I rented a dumpster a couple weeks ago. It was the smallest one they have (though still decent sized) and we completely filled it up. What a wonderful feeling! It was great to clear out so much crap from this house. There is much to be said for letting go of the old, to make way for the new.

I've always been a huge proponent of not cluttering up your space. I know you wouldn't know it to look around here, but that's the problem - the clutter here drives me to distraction. I hate it!! But the last 5 years have taken a toll on my clutter policing. Having someone move in with me, with all their stuff, was one thing; then there was the necessary emptying out of my mom and dad's house which happened way too fast, without time to really sort through things and think about them, or deal with getting rid of them. I kept way more stuff from there than I should have, simply becauase I felt too rushed to make a snap decision.

But that was okay - because while I had to live with a lot more clutter for a few years, it gave me time to mentally come to terms with getting rid of some of it.

That dumpster purge was one of the best things I've done in a long time. And I didn't throw away "everything" - I kept things that were important to me, or even a few things I was still unsure about. Just the stuff that I looked at and said "Why in the hell do I have this?" went away. It's been great to free up both the physical and mental space, to be able to now have room for the things that actually matter in my life.

The Imaginarium benefited the most from the purge. Like at the old house, the upstairs had become the dumping ground for stuff we didn't know what else to do with. So it was extraordinarily trashed, and that was where my 'hobby area' was - making it nothing more than an exercise in frustration to try to do anything up there, fighting through junk and stuff in my way just to work on a simple project.

Since cleaning it out, I'm far more enthusiastic about spending time up there and working on projects. In fact, I made two chemises for Pennsic last week, and it went great - easy, and fun. It really made me want to start sewing again. That's another long-lost hobby that often gets side-tracked because in both this house and the old house, the sewing area was relegated to the least used, most out-of-the-way area of the house, which also by default became the junk storage area ... so my sewing area was usually so junked up that by the time I'd clean it up enough to do anything, Iwas too tired or frustrated or out of time.

Not anymore. This house is big enough, with a dedicated 'hobby area' in the Imaginarium, that I'm not letting that happen again. After Pennsic I plan to devote some time to starting to fix up the things about the Imaginarium that are still bugging me - it needs better lighting, and the cabinet doors need painted, as all that dark wood makes it look dim and dreary up there. And I plan to do a lot more sewing.

I want to make more garb for Pennsic - I desperately need new garb, but as usual waited till too close to Pennsic to make any more this year. I say every year I'll do this over the winter, and never do, but I'm hoping this year will be different.

I also want to make some quilts. I've been wanting to do that for decades, and never gave myself the time or space to do it. That, too, is changing.

And I want to start making my own mundane clothes as well. That's something I began learning how to do a few years ago, and was really enjoying it, but life went all splodey and I never got back to it. That's back on the agenda this winter.

I haven't abandoned my A&S 50 Challenge projects, either ... they've just been on hiatus. I hope to start back on those after Pennsic as well. I'll probably never complete all 50 at the rate I'm going, but it's still fun to learn and try new things.

I'm participating in that age-old ritual of choosing a bunch of classes I want to go to at Pennsic, that I'll probably never make it to. But I got the class list online and have been going through it. There are lots of classes for skills I'd need to learn for my chosen A&S 50 projects, so it would be a shame not to take advantage of that opportunity.

Some years I really look forward to Pennsic, some years I am kind of 'meh' about it ... this is one of those years when I'm really looking forward to it. I can't wait!

Another Good Report For Tyler

Tyler had his vet check-up yesterday, and it was another great one. No problems, he's doing "amazingly" well! Always love to hear that. I went over the test results with Dr. Nokes, but he said the few things that were flagged as borderline were really no big deal and nothing to worry about.

He didn't even have to have his teeth cleaned, though he might next time if I don't keep up on his dental care - something I do tend to put off because he doesn't like it. I have to remind myself, its better for him to endure a little bit of something he doesn't like daily, then to have to be anesthetized for a cleaning.

So, so far he's still doing good - for those of you who have lost track, he'll be 16 in November. Amazing.

Gardening Update

So I wanted a little water feature in the one side of the 'dining room gardens.' Last weekend I found a large planter I thought would work well for it, so got that. I already had a small submersible water pump.

The trick was, however, getting the two to work together. I tried sitting the pump on something inside the planter, but the force of the pumping water and the pull of the power cord flipped it on its side, and it wouldn't stay upright. So I decided I had to permanently attach it to something to hold it at the right height, and then weight that something so it would sit firmly in the planter.

For my first attempt, I scrounged in the garage and found this piece of black flexible pipe which was just the right height, then found two container lids (from the plastic containers sweet-and-sour sauce from the Chinese takeout place comes in) which just fit the ends of the tube. So far so good.

I also had some clear waterproof sealant/adhesive, like can be used for aquariums, etc. I figured that would glue a lid to the bottom of the pipe (so I could weight it with stones), then glue the pump to the top lid, which I would simply snap on.

Except when the pump was stuck to the lid, it warped it slightly so it wouldn't snap on ... so I tied it on with hemp twine.

This was a complete failure. The pump didn't stick to the lid, so when I put it in the planter full of water, the pump came lose and fell sideways. When I went to pick the whole thing up to move it and try to fix it, the bottom lid came loose, spilling my rocks all over the place.

This might have worked if I had let the adhesive cure. :o) I was too impatient.

Then I got the idea that it would be easier to use a plastic coffee container I knew I had; I could fill it with rocks, glue the pump to the lid, snap the lid on, and voila.

But even after letting the pump and lid sit for 24 hours, the adhesive wouldn't stick to the slick plastic lid.

Then we tried JB Weld, a heavy-duty epoxy, which we believed would stick anything together. I even heavily scored the lid to take away some of it's 'slickness.' But again, failure. The epoxy bonded great to the pump, and simply would not stick to the lid.

In desperation, I went old school, and tried what Greg first suggested - zip ties.



So the coffee can has a bunch of rocks in it, the pump is zip-tied to the lid, and the lid is snapped in place. Stupid-looking? Yep. Works? Yep.

In other news, I had ordered some plants from Spring Hill Nursery, but unfortunately, prematurely, as I wasn't ready to plant them when they came. The directions say if you absolutely can't plant them right away, to put them in the crisper drawer of your fridge, but under no circumstances can you expect success if you don't plant them within 10 days.

Well, I put them in the crisper drawer, but then still didn't get the area ready for planting till something like two weeks later, so I figured the plants were toast. But, having nothing to lose, I pulled the astilbe and planted it in its new home.


However, I think it's going to make it this is how it looks a mere week after planting.


Definitely doing well.

Here's what the whole area looks like so far.


I have plans to add more, and of course these current plants will eventually get much larger, filling the area pretty well. I need to camouflage that pump cord, and fill in around the plants with mulch. I also need to get my soaker hose installed - I've been using the rain barrel to water these plants, but it'll be much easier when the actual soaker hose is in place.

BTW, sorry all the pictures are a little dark and hard to see ... I've been using the Droid for all my pictures lately, instead of bothering with my regular digital camera. But while the Droid is a higher MP camera than my 'regular' digital, and has a flash, I haven't yet figured out how to actually take good pictures with it. And my photo editing software sucks - as in, I actually don't have any on the netbook, and am just using Windows 7's 'editing' window. Which sucks. I'll probably have to break down and go back to using the old computer just for photo editing at least, or get better at taking pictures.