Thursday, March 26, 2009

Our Rain Barrels

My hubby was busy on Sunday. He finally got our rain barrels put together and they look great. I was quite impressed with his handy work. We got the barrels from a bottling company for $5 each. He watched some "how to" videos online and researched other rain barrels sites and came up with this plan to design them.The barrels are place up off the ground on cement blocks to help the water flow out. He put a flexible down spot coming off the gutter over to the barrel. At the end of the flexible gutter there is this, to trap any leaves or debris before it enters the barrel.Then he attached the two barrels together so that when the first barrel fills up, it will overflow into the second barrel. There is a spigot at the bottom of both barrels. If they both get filled up, then there is an overflow hole on the second barrel that will route the water away from the house. The pipe goes over to my flowers. Very clever.We got some rain on Monday and they worked great! They filled up very fast.

This post is linked up to Life As Mom, Frugal Fridays.

13 comments:

  1. Those are great. What a cheap way to save some money. When we get into a house we are definately getting rain barrels.

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  2. we've got one too. It was a big "photo op" once installed :-)
    stopping by from UBP to say "hi" - party on :-)
    carma

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  3. They look great! I've really been wanting to get rain barells, but when researching them online they seemed way too pricey. But your hubby's version looks very simple, effective and CHEAP! (Cheap is one of my fave words! hehe)

    Can you tell me what kind of bottling company you got those from? Or what are they called, how many gallons?

    I am so excited for you and this really peaks my interest in the rain barrels again!

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  4. This something we've thought of doing, but never got started on. We'll have to look into it one of these days after we get some of our other projects done :)

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  5. HeatherMama~
    We got our barrels from Atlantic Bottling Company (Atlantic Iowa, Coca Cola). They have a distribution office in Waukee Iowa. This is were I picked them up. They are 55 gallons each. My brother got some too from somewhere else. I will ask him and get back to you with any suggestions he has for finding them somewhere else also.

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  6. I love your rain barrels. I want to do that at my house eventually but I am also having trouble finding cheap barrels. Not only are yours cheap but being white they don't stick out!

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  7. I may be the only one to ask, but what do you use these for?? This is new to me. :)

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  8. Carla,
    These barrels collect rain water and then we can use this water to water or garden or use it to wash our car!

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  9. Oh! Thanks for letting me know! Great idea!

    Carla

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  10. Any word on where else we can find these barrels? I'm going to search craigslist right now actually. Maybe I will find something.

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  11. Looks like your hubbie did a great job!

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  12. Those look great! I'll bet they are a big help

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  13. These are so awsome. I can't wait to show DH in the morning! Your DH came up with a really neat and doable plan. Great JOB!!!

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