The Rain Barrel …symbolic of the sane Homo sapien.

Congratulations! You have chosen a water system that is free, untreated and under your control. The amount of water coming off your roof should amaze you and thrill your plants (I don't think they care for the chemicals the city is adding to their water). This 55 gallon, food clean rain barrel will help you harvest rain water by simply hooking it up to your down spout and it's there for you. Whether the city is having a "water shortage" or not you will have your own private source! Enjoy your new well you didn't know was right over your head!

Locating your barrel

Walk around your house and look at your gutters and down spouts and chances are you will find a functional water catchment system you can hook a rain barrel up to. You will want to hook into one of your down spouts to catch the most water (1,000 square feet of roof will yield approximately 500 gallons of rainwater and in Tacoma/Seattle that's about 20,000 gallons/year) you will also want to consider the location of your garden. The barrel is a gravity feed so if you want to attach a hose or drip hose you'll want the barrel to be above the garden. I use four 8" cinder blocks as a stand to give it 16" elevation so this should help too. So if your gutters are fairly clear and your down spouts are connected you can find a good spot for the barrel. Measure your roof by its' foot print not the rise of the roof, then you can multiply that square footage by .5 to get an accurate amount of water you can collect for one inch of rain or http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/weather/historical/historical.htm to find the yearly average totals for your city.

Please secure your rain barrel as much as possible as a full 55-gallon barrel will weigh approximately 400 pounds! Hopefully your own water system will encourage you to grow more of your own food thus lessening your dependence on agribuisness and their exploitation of life.

Attaching the barrel (a.k.a. gutter liberation)

Well, before you bring out the hack saw… see if you can detach the downspout by hand. There may be a piece you can detach. To get the water into the barrel you'll need something to divert the water. This can be as simple as an elbow piece like the one from the bottom of your downspout. If sawing is necessary, however, place the stand, barrel and diverter in such a way so as to judge the height of your cut. Some gutters may need some support with the new cut and I've found that nailing a gutter band on seems to work well. Most gutters I've seen are quite light and easy to work with.

Uses for rain water

I hope you will find these useful; 1) Vegetables, flowers, trees and shrubs. 2) Seedlings in a green house 3) Compost/worm bins 4) Where no faucet is available, 5) Indoor plants, 6) Your lawn… or better yet, turn

lawn into a garden, 7) Keep water away from the foundation, 8) wash your car or bike, 9) wash your hands

off in the garden, 10) Flush your toilet (Grey water from your bath/shower works too or buy a composting toilet from me), 11) Cool yourself off on a hot day or start a water fight! I would like to tell you how to drink it and clean with it but there are problems I haven't worked out yet. Stay tuned.

Useful equation:

.5x=y, where 'x' is the square footage and 'y' is the number of gallons collected with one inch of rain fall. You can solve for either 'x' or 'y' (just a hint for us mathematically challenged)

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