Sunday, May 25, 2008

Addicted to Rain


After seeing how much rain I could gather off the chicken coop roof I got to thinking how much roof I own. And, defacto, how much water I might be able to gather. I admit to feeling a bit greedy. Now I'm addicted to rain barrels and have an idea for an above ground concrete cistern.

While that idea kicks around like Ruby in the womb here's a picture of our latest water gathering station. I like the way the whiskey barrel looks with the house. Better, visually, than the plastic variety. With this is old Four Roses barrel I now have just more than 100 gallon storage capacity.

The vine by the barrel tank is hops, a relative of both the mulberry tree and pot. I love the foliage of hops and you can train the vines to go where you would like. In this case, an arch of green from the post to the back door. I heard that pillows filled with dried hop buds promotes deeper sleep.

Next post I'll let you know how I hook into the gutter supply. I just went up on the roof and found out my gutter is full of detritus. Gotta go deal with that.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You might want to check out the downspout diverters, downspout filters and rain barrel kits at: http://www.aquabarrel.com

AR said...

Yeah, but what will the Four Roses residue do to/for your plants (better yet, to your chickens?)? Only good things, I imagine.