Ha. It didn't rain again until yesterday. As if to beg forgiveness, however, it rained three times - early afternoon, late afternoon, and then early evening. When the first rain started, I rushed out to put a few buckets under the edge of the roof and put the new rain gauge into the ground in the middle of the yard - not a permanent home, but good enough to measure for the one storm.
Once the rain got going and water started flowing off the roof, I adjusted the position of the buckets to take advantage of the four places where most of the water seems to come off the front of the roof.
One of the heaviest flows is right over the stairs. Rain gutters will eliminate this problem eventually, but for now the buckets keep the stairs from getting quite as slippery.
When the rain started again later, I scrounged up more buckets and containers, including a 33 gallon trash can and an 18 gallon plastic tote. I emptied a lot of the buckets into the big can to make room for more rain. Unfortunately the wheel section collapsed under the weight of the water.There wasn't much we could do for the evening rain, so the buckets overflowed some.
The rain gauge this morning showed a total of .2" for all of yesterday. We collected about 80 gallons of water in our containers. The garden will probably really enjoy being watered with collected rain; well, not as much as when it actually rains but the plants can't be too picky!
10 comments:
I need to get a rain barrel! We have had so much rain this month, it's crazy.
That is so awesome!
We don't have the kind of dry weather you do, but we (usually) get all our rain in May and June, very little in July and August when we need it for vegetables. I have 2 55-gallon water barrels and I think if I put in 4 more, it would be enough for the garden in a dry year.
It's amazing how little rain it takes, when you consider the square footage of the house's roof.
I've been using kitty litter buckets for years under the eaves of my back roof... they've been great for watering the gardens and orchard trees... it's been a little dry of late so, most of the buckets are under half full, but the clouds are building and my hopes are high... you guys are really coming along...
Twitter: SolarChief
My daughter and I made a rain barrel. It is not so much as it is dry here as to have a stand-by water supply.
Can you spray paint the outside of yours with paint for plastic?
Watch out that you never bang the nozzle to hard. It will start leaking...at least ours does.
Now, this is great. Would love to get my hands on one of those! I use the kitty litter pails, too, and have about eight strung out below the roof at the back of the house and craft shop... get more than enough water for the garden and can add fertilizer right into the water! See...you're getting it all together... never a doubt...
Twitter: SolarChief
put feeder goldfish in the water to eat mosquito larvae. never feed the goldfish they will grow like crazy.
you can build a 2000 gallon tank cheap. 8 ft wide by 16 ft long 2 feet deep. home depot will slice your plywood to 2 ft wide. you use 3 of them. run a 2x4 around the top and bottom edge. I am sure you can do it. I can make one by myself in an hour. I use 3 inch and 1 5/8 inch deck screws and an electric drill with long extension cord. The 16 foot length works a little better with 2x6 but the 2x4 is fine on the 8 ft length.
Use black plastic liner. allow to fill all winter. now you are set with some water for the garden. you can get a fish pool pump or small sump pump to drive water down a garden hose.
If you throw in feeder rosie red minnows they will breed and that is fun. goldfish will eat the rosie red minnow babies. I buy feeder minnows and goldfish for a dollar a dozen or bag full. they live for years outdoors without food. nature provides. I have had goldfish be 20 times bigger in the fall then in the spring. lots of good food.
We actually see water storage tanks on craigslist periodically and will probably hold out for one of those. We do hope to eventually do a a bit of aquaculture, though, probably with tilapia, and could also use it for rainwater collection.
I used to get feeder goldfish for a mini-pond when I lived in Phoenix and they did grow pretty big. Unfortunately, the evening after I cleaned out the excess algae, a raccoon got the goldfish. We have raccoons here, too, probably so I can see that being a problem, along with lots of loose dogs (and coyotes and gray fox and coatis...)
Still, that pond liner stuff is really handy!
Oh, and yeah, the buckets do work pretty well and are a CHEAP and easy solution for now. Paint might work for the tanks - hm...
Now all you need to do is convert half of your sink to be a veggie wash only and have it drain into one of those litter buckets. Easy peasy with a straight tube and then you just replace the T that's already there. Keeps dirt out of the trap and it makes the perfect amount to water the compost with.
Also, you may look at the drawing at ZonaGardens to see what the culvert that Mr. Calhoun uses to catch water. We did the in-the-ground model, but would use the above ground (poured in a form) version that are springing up around T-town.
Thanks for the suggestions!
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