Friday, April 3, 2009

Buddy Friday - Water Barrels.......

Where we live at the moment, we have to pay for all water used. Now when we move to the new house we have a well so won't have to pay for the water. However, regardless of whether you pay for your water or not, using what comes down from the sky for free is a good way to go if you ask me...........

One way of "harvesting" the rain is by having a rain or water barrel attached to your down spout off your house.

There are different ways of going about this, you can buy one like this: http://www.ne-design.net/ or you could make one yourself.

Here are a few links on how to build a rain barrel:

This is a You Tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGFDlkJOdaM

http://www.naturalrainwater.com/make_rainbarrel.htm

http://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles/adams/audrey/water_barrel.htm

http://www.townofcary.org/depts/pwdept/water/waterconservation/rainbarrelinstructions.pdf

Personally though I think we are going to buy ours from our local council, as we cannot get the barrels for free, so this is a cheaper alternative.

For more Buddy Friday posts, please visit Margaret's Ramblings

9 comments:

Cathy said...

Hello Gill
I think I need to get new glasses -when I first saw the title I thoughtit said Wine Barrels lol

Does anyone have Water Tanks attached to their downpipes instead of barrels.

Take care
Cathy

Anonymous said...

I've often wondered if it's possible to recycle the bath water for watering the garden plants. Would the soap/shampoo kill tham off?

GG

stitchersanon said...

Do you need to get the wwell water checked? We have to get ours checked yearly for purity.
Exciting though isnt it!

Cathy said...

Hello again Gill
Have sosme info for you on my blog
See you there
Cathy

MyBulletinBoard said...

I'm trying to figure out how to harvest snow. We just don't have much rain, but when it snows it goes all out. . . . ..... I've heard two stories on the bath water. If you are governed by the EPA in the US, be careful. Not wise for plants you will consume, but I have a friend who dips it out for her flowers and shrubs with no problems. Some homesteaders construct their own artificial wetlands to process the least contaminated graywater from their washers before putting it on their vegetable gardens. Has to be done right to avoid mosquitoes. Don't have all the answers, yet, but I'm working on it. We do save the drip and run water from the kitchen -- like the water that drips on sub-freezing nights to keep the pipes from freezing, the water out of the double-boiler, the water I rinsed the potatoes in when I peel them, the water used to thaw the frozen meat, etc. -- that sort of thing. I catch the run water in the shower when I'm waiting for the hot water to get there. All in all, we have over twenty-four gallons a week to bottle up and pour out on the garden and the compost. We are pre-watering -- before the gardens are planted. The water is stored in the ground and rises to water the roots when it gets warmer. This is the way many farmers grow their grain crops. Water for thought! Liz

Margaret's Ramblings said...

When I lived in the backblocks in New Zealand, we collected rain water off te roof into tanks for all our water needs. "Grey" water from the bathroom and washing machine we used on the garden but I poured it on the ground not the leaves. They seemed to thrive and it can help with certain pests like aphids.

Margaret

Laurieluc said...

This is very interesting to me. No one I know here has a rain barrel and while I have heard of them, it hasn't crossed my mind...I will have to read a little more on this I think. We have a beautiful southern exposure and I am trying to talk hubby into checking out solar panels for our roof. Great post!

Laurie

Neil Tasker said...

Interesting. In Scotland we have to think of ways of getting rid of the bloody rain water! ;-)

Scrappy quilter said...

We have water barrels and also a large tank that saves our rain water. It also saves us a huge amount of $$ during the summer months. We pay for our water which is metered. Having rain barrels is a great cost saver.

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