Our rain barrel works and is now over half full with rain water!!!

Two days after hooking up the rain barrel we received a storm. This storm wasn't much, however it did fill up our rain barrel over half way! I will do another video showing the rain barrel and how I built it and why.

Rain barrel is now filled half way with rain water!!!

So the rain came as advertised  yesterday and it filled up our new rain barrel over half way!

I will post some video along with images soon. It's so cool to have this rain barrel working after all the work we've done. Hanging the gutters was definatly worth it. Now I just need more rain barrels, lol

Rain barrel update: Finished phase one of three

Rain barrel update:

I have finished installation of the rain gutter in location number one out of our three total locations. The gutter is hung, the down spout has been installed and the rain barrels have been placed in the proper location. I have my flexible hose attached to the gutter down spout and connected to the atrium gate which is installed upside down on top of the rain barrel  lid. I have taken some  pictures, but need to download them from my camera later to post here.

We may get some rain today as a matter of fact. Local reports are calling for later in the evening rain which will give my new rain gutters a good test run for larger storms in the future. I am excited to see the results of our rain collection device.

I will post the images soon as well as a detailed list of what is needed to accomplish what I have done here. It's really very simple and should be very rewarding!

Added alfalfa hay to the raised bed gardens

I added a couple inches of alfalfa hay to our raised garden beds yesterday. This should help with water savings as well as add some nutirents to the soil as it breaks down. I will add a few pictures in a day or two. The garden seems to be doing well. I did a foliar spray yesterday as well. I used the sameold mixture of liquid seaweed, fish emulsion and vinegar.

Also working on getting the rain gutters installed. Have not heard of any rain in the future, but I know as soon as I put it up we'll get some :) Until the next post!

Mock up of the rain barrels

Here is a photo mock up of where the rain barrels will be placed. I hope to have the cape honey suckle wrapped across the front within one year.

Found a great place for the rain barrel

I've found a great place in the yard today for our rain barrel. Originally I was going to have only one rain barrel located here, (as in the picture), however I've now changed my mind and will add two rain barrels in this location. I will also add a few cape honey suckle plants to hide the rain barrels. I also have some other idea's on how to help camouflage the rain barrels and keep people from seeing a huge blue barrel in our yard, after all this is a very active HOA over here :)

Here is the before photo of where I want to put the rain barrel(s). The second rain barrel will go towards the left. This is getting to be a larger project than I fist imagined. I was only going to add one rain barrel to our side yard for the garden...now my plans are to add a total of six rain barrels around the house! They will be in groups of two in the areas where we get a lot of run off when it rains. The image your looking at below will be where the rain barrels are kept to water our four citrus trees. They require around 20-25 gallons each every 7 days or so during the summer. Two full rain barrels would water these citrus trees beautifully! The other rain barrels will water both our raised gardens and the front yard. It's a dream at this point, but becoming more real every day.

Building rain barrels - Adding the hose spigot / hose bib

Had a few free minutes today so I decided to drill the hole for the hose spigot. I'll get you the exact size of the spigot I used later. Right now all I remember is that I used a 1" hole saw to make my cut out, and used teflon tape around the threads before threading the hose bib all the way into the rain barrel.

Of course when I saw a blue hose spigot you know I had to use those! It really looks good with this style hose bib. I have angled the hose bib slightly on an upward angle. This should allow me to keep the barrel on level ground,(without using any stands), and still connect a piece of hose to this hose bib without leaving that much empty space inside the bottom of my rain barrel. My plan is to not use any type of stand or base under my rain barrel and see if I can still get a hose connected without much headache. The rain barrels on stands or some type of base scare me as far as them falling over for whatever reason. If I angle my water spigot just enough, like in the photo, I think I can have my rain barrel sit on the flat dirt and still not loose much water that would settle below the spigot inside the barrel. This would also help me keep the rain barrel from standing to tall in which it will be more obvious. I'm trying to make my rain barrel very incognito and blend into the landscape :)

I also used a small amount of aquarium silicone around the hose bib in addition to the teflon tape around the threads for a water tight seal.

How to make rain barrels using food grade 55 gallon barrels

So I decided adding a few rain barrels would be a great way to reduce our use of water we have to pay for. I'll be doing this process from start to finish all the while adding pictures of the progress along with posts on idea's and such.

I am very excited to start this rain barrel project and anxious to see how much water we can collect from our Arizona rain storms.

Here is an image of my rain barrels. So far I have two, but I plan on adding a few more  in the near future. My rain barrels are food grade, 55 gallon blue plastic barrels with removable lids that secure to the top of the barrel with a metal clamp.

REMEBER:
- Always use a FOOD GRADE barrel so that you do not contaminate your rain water with chemicals that were once inside the plastic barrel.

- Removable lids are a MUST in order to clean your rain barrel properly.

I look forward to posting more progress soon. You might have rain gutters installed on your residence, I however do not. After I find the perfect place to put the rain barrel, I will have to install rain gutters on the roof. This should not be very hard, although I've never installed rain gutters before. Time consuming at the least is all.