I always feel like an idiot living in a rainy part of the country yet still needing to water my garden.  After lots of discussion, Garbanzo bought some food grade plastic barrels and is converting them into rain barrels.  For those unfamiliar, you connect your downspout to the barrel, capture the rain water in it, then use it later to water your garden.  (You put a spick-et at the bottom to connect a hose.)

We are hoping, besides saving on the water bill, it solves our other issue with regards to our basement.  The downspout off the back roof sits way too close to the house, so the runoff usually ends up in our basement.  (Maximum saturation can be easily hit due to the poor soil drainage at that part of the house, so it seeps through into the basement.  I suspect this is due in part to the fact this is where the decommissioned oil tank is located as well its former connection into the basement.)  We are going to flip the end where the downspout drains since the opposite end is further from the house.  Then we are going to connect it to the barrels.  Hopefully this will mean a dry basement as even overflow is far enough from the house that it shouldn’t have that issue with the basement.  Or that’s the hope.  Here’s to hoping!

Here is Derek demonstrating what he wishes what the barrels were really for : storing beer.

Here is Garbanzo demonstrating what will likely happen if they were filled with beer.

And here is what Indigo wishes they could be used for – drums.

I will have to commend Garbanzo on this project.  First off, he pulled it off without my knowledge as a surprise.  I have found over time that if he surprises me, the plan is well executed through completion.  The last big surprise resulted in our back fence being built as well as my raised beds.  Secondly, he did some cost analysis of prebuilt barrels versus converting them himself.  He is doing it for less than half the cost of the prebuilt kind.  Like to the tune of $125 for 3 barrels versus around $300.  And as he found, they are quick to convert.  Lastly, he is using this opportunity to have the gutter replaced on the back of the house.  Let’s just say the snow and ice we got last winter did quite a number on it.  He is getting bids tomorrow, and I suspect that whoever we give the business to will be doing it quite quickly.  (It’s really an easy job for one of these guys.)

And hopefully we will get it done in a few days because it’s supposed to rain in the next couple days.