The rain barrel

So you want a rain barrel to use for watering around the house and the garden.  First you need to find a container to hold the water.  There are many ways to do this, from a trash can, to a farm container.  We decided to use the latter, because they are bigger and come already plumbed.  Now finding one can be a challenge.  Using Craigslist we found a lot for around $100, which was more than we were willing to pay.  Finally we found a farmer that was selling them for $20.00...BINGO...So after driving to pick it up the next step was to level the ground.  Now if you are going to do this, you need to ensure the ground is Level (reasonably speaking) or you build a platform for it.  The next step was to alter the down spout to direct the water into the bin, then seal it with some steel wool to keep mosquitoes out.  Then we waited for a rain...and rain it did.  We filled the tank with one overnight rain, of course when you do this you need to put an overflow pipe on it so that when it is full it does not come out the top.

Now we are able to capture 275 gallons of water, and reuse it for watering.  There is pretty good pressure in it when it is full, due to the fact the drain is on the downhill side.  Next spring of course I will have to build a box to hide it, but fortunately for us it blends nicely into the hill side.

Life after the trip

Well I survived the 4,000 mile trip to Texas, and there were only 2 casualties my parent's table and a trailer tire.  While there, the temp was in the mid 90's each day which was real hard to take...

On the way back we had to stop at a couple places that were featured on DDD..

And did they have GREAT Hot Dogs...if your in West VA it is worth the stop.

I will be updating the wine rack real soon.

Be kind to everyone.