15 March 2008

Rain Harvester Reactivate!



We have aroused our rain harvester from its winter slumber. With the ides of March upon us, we figured that the threat of a hard freeze has passed. To be quite honest winter never really showed. I'm sure we'll get a few more cold spells, but nothing deep enough to burst our lines.

The process was pretty simple. All I had to do was remove the garbage bag cover and two layers of plastic underneath the bag. The screen and chicken wire we covered the filler barrel with to act as a debris shield was still in tact and in great shape. We closed the spigot we had left open to allow any condensation to run out, and that was that. All that's left is to wait for some rain so we can check for leaks. The whole process took maybe ten minutes.



If any of you are planning to invest in a rain harvester, now is the time to do it. The spring rains are either here or on their way. It's nice to have a bit of that water stored up for planting season, which is right around the corner.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since we live in an apartment we don't really have the option of investing in a rain harvester although I am very tempted to at least stick a 5 gallon bucket under one of the gutters when it rains since that would give me enough water for all my plants for a couple weeks,

N.

http://badhuman.wordpress.com

Anonymous said...

Wow, I never thought about harvesting rain. How responsible is that!

Unknown said...

N&J,
Plants love rain water. Any amount that you can give them will help. Watch that the receptacle you use isn't left uncovered, mosquitoes love standing water.

Cathy,
We just started doing it out of necessity last year. Our garden became too big to rely on our well. So far every thing is working out great.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Good idea for a rain harvester. They are very common here, but we don't usually get much Spring Rains.

Our heavy rains come in the summer monsoons. It falls faster and heavier than the ground can soak it up, so harvesting is so important so we can capture it before it washes off the land.

Meg said...

Twinville, we get loads of rain in the spring, usually, and the saved up water comes in handy during our inevitable August dry spell. The rain barrels definitely saved our tomatoes last year!