Rain Barrel Action!

MVI_0039 a video by okfuskee on Flickr.

Here's the rain barrel doing its thing in light to moderate rain. Some might wonder - why a rain barrel? Isn't water pretty cheap around here? Well right after we moved in we had a 100 year storm that put the basement under about 6 inches of water. Ever since then, we have been doing many different things to prevent future such events. Everything we have done has been external to the house...well almost everything...I did caulk a few coins into some basement holes that were squirting water like some dutch levee without a dutchboy. Bambi didn't like that idea even though each coin was selected to be meaningful in some way - MA quarter, Ohio Quarter, CT quarter (It has a tree!) and I think something from 1976... to be patriotic or something. Also I finally caulked one bad window...but anyway we did nothing drastic inside. We graded the earth around the house to slope away, took out a few planter boxes on the side of the house that seemed to collect and hold water against the house, took out a wide concrete walkway on the side that sloped into the house, and have added great quantities of organic matter to our clay soil. The result has been a gradual diminishment of basement flooding. At this point, we haven't seen it flood for quite a while. Anyway, the rain barrel takes 55 gallons out of the equation - not much...but maybe enough to take it past the critical mass needed for flooding, and when it does fill, the overflow tube sends the extra far out into the yard.

We do save a few pennies on water but that doesn't feel like much. A bigger issue is the amount of water that no longer ends up as storm run-off which is costly for local government and damages the Chesapeake Bay. Looking for more info? See Arlington County's Sensible Explanation and their What Can I Do Website has other ideas that go beyond the rain barrel.

And one last thing...it is kind of fun...hoping for rain so I can get some free water to water the native (and not so native) plants in the front.

To get even more up close and personal with that spout, click here.