I mentioned in my previous post, Water: My new obsession, I have a new found fascination with rainwater harvesting. After my fiance bought our first rainwater barrel and I saw how quickly it filled up, it became my goal in life to create MORE (and cheaper) rainwater storage. Enter my father.
As I got older and realized I didn’t actually know everything, I began to realize how much some of my dad’s habits actually made a lot of sense. For example, we took a road trip to Ohio when I was about 12 and my dad packed a tool box in the car. That’s not so odd, because after all, you never know when you might need some tools on an 1100 mile road trip. What was strange to me was that in that toolbox, he put a single piece of like 4 gauge wire. When I asked him what that piece of wire was for he said, “you never know when your gonna need a good piece of wire.” At age 12, needing a good piece of wire just in case made no sense. At 32 years old, it makes perfect sense.
So what does a good piece of wire have to do with rainwater harvesting? Well, my dad has always been a collector of things that you didn’t know you needed until you didn’t have it. I’m not saying he belongs on an episode of Hoarders, but he has a keen eye for useful stuff (some, including my mother may call it junk). He is the source for my blue barrels below, not to mention part of my inspiration for this project. Ill discuss that in a different post though.
I based my system off this guys
Its a simple rig really. Three plastic 55 gallon barrels next to each other catching rainwater from the gutter with some pvc pipe linking them all together so that they all fill equally. In case your dad doesn’t happen to have some barrels laying around to use, check your local hardware store or look for a soda/beer distributor. Either usually has them. The question is then, how much are you willing to spend? Ive seen them as low as $25 in some places. The other crucial thing to remember in acquiring barrels for rainwater storage is, what was in the barrels originally? Generally speaking, if it was some sort of food (pickles, jalapenos, etc.) they will be fine for storing and using the water on plants, edible and otherwise. Although you may get some spicy tomatoes if your watering from a barrel formerly home to say, jalapenos.
Ill walk you my process:
