The Rain Barrel Project

So by now many of you that spend any time around me have heard me "carrying on" about being Eco-friendly and energy frugal. I've decided to start a rain barrel project to, for the lack of better words, put my money where my mouth is. I would have much preferred to start with photovoltaic solar panels, but I didn't have $40,000 for the project.

We have a vast area of flower gardens in our yards and paying to water them was high on my list of things not to do. The cost of the project will be quickly offset on the savings in our water bill this summer.

So I started with some 55 gallon barrels that were "reclaimed" from other uses (like collecting dust) and cruised the Internet for the parts and ideas that I needed to get the project rolling. I found my most useful information here.

After reviewing that site I followed some of the links and found that most of the products for rain barrels were from outside the US. I decided on the Garden Water Saver for my project. I wanted to be able to collect water without having to worry about when the barrels were full and where the overflow water was going.

Painting the barrels was next. One coat of paint wasn't enough to cover the blue so today's project was a second (and hopefully final) coat of paint. Hopefully the parts arrive today, but it's a long way from Richmond, BC, Canada to Elizabethtown, PA.