After completing the roof renovation I put up new fascia and soffit, as well as eavestrough. When running the downspouts, I decided to try to run them into rain barrels. On the front of the house, facing the driveway, this wasn't possible. However, on far side, and on the garage, it worked like a charm. There's something about having perfectly clean water run into a storm sewer that seems so ridiculous -- I use water from the tap (that had to be treated) to water the garden. I have two black steel rain barrels that fill when it rains. (I traded my old eavestrough for the barrels - win-win, I'd say.) However, my setup is pretty Mickey Mouse compared to my friend's rain operation, or, as I will now refer to it, Rain Farm.
He has a large house with a large garage, and two 45 gallon rain barrels. Not so fancy, you say, well, that was until today. Now, he still has a large garage, large house, but instead of just 2 measly rain barrels, he has 12. Twelve, I said. He was working in his back yard the other day and peered over his fence (not in a creepy way, it's a 5' fence, you can't not peer over it) and saw 10 rain barrels lined up in his neighbours back yard. He checked with his neighbour, and found out that they used to be hooked up in series to collect rain, but became too much hassle for the old man. He was looking to get rid of them. My buddy jumped at the chance, and now has a veritable Rain Farm. A great example of conserving, happily mixed with a little bit of obsessing.
No comments:
Post a Comment