Rain, rain...

Come and stay!

C and I went ahead and bought two rain barrels off Craigslist in June and definitely seeing the payoff! As luck would have it, we bought the barrels, rushed to set them up that day since it was supposed to storm, and... it didn't. We had almost 2 weeks of no rain, and finally we got massive storms the following week! Ever since then it's been on and off, but thankfully we've never completely run out of stored water. We've come close, but never run out.

Our setup is pretty simple; we have the retaining wall that was built last March, where we put in a French drain to divert the water away from the house. We purchased a little piece of flex gutter which is set up to drain right into barrel #1 under the deck. Knowing that we want to keep as much water away from the house as possible, we chose this one to be the recipient of the trash can we had been using to catch water. A little piece of hose, a hose fitting and there you have it... an overflow container!


Barrel #2 involved a bit of cutting, but it was still very easy to set up. It is positioned at the back corner of the garage, conveniently tucked behind the house. This barrel doesn't have an overflow container, but I think that is going to change very soon. We did take off one of the caps for the overflow water and let it just drain out where we already had water problems from the original gutter.


An example of them in use was one week early on that brought .75 inches of rain according to the Weather Channel. We filled up both 55-gallon barrels, 2-5 gallon pails, 1-2 gallon watering can, 1-1 gallon watering can, 2-2 gallon pails, 1-1 gallon pail, and 1-33 gallon trash can. That puts us at a grand total of 161 gallons saved from one rainfall! This means that I can water the veggie garden 5 times (when it's in its max planting) without running out. Due to the constant fear of drought, the rain barrels were crucial to our garden. Overall we never had to use the hose to water, yay!

It's Not Easy Being Green

Ahh, yes. Kermit. His simple little line translates into today's sudden need to be "green". It's definitely not easy being green, that's for sure.

Now, in this sense, being "green" refers to being environmentally friendly. Old habits are the toughest to break. How often do we just throw away the plastic bags we get from grocery shopping? What about throwing everything into the trash can instead of recycling? It takes effort. For some reason, people have recently had this epiphany that Earth is not in very good shape; the reports are saddening. The green movement crashed and burned about 10 years ago, especially in the housing industry, since people didn't really see it as that big of a deal. Now that we're running out of room to put trash, parts of the world are now in severe drought conditions, and glaciers are melting, there's this big push to be green.

Not that this is a bad thing...

One question I often have is whether or not people are making changes because it's the cool thing to do or if it's because they're truly concerned about the environment. I know, I know... that shouldn't be an issue, right? A change is a change... but aren't you more likely to stick with it if it's for the true reason of being more environmentally friendly instead of being cool?

Now, on to what simple changes can be done to help out the environment a bit:

-Limit driving to necessary trips.
-Change light bulbs to CFLs.
-Change from plastic bags at the store to reusable bags.
-Switch to vinegar-based home made cleaning solutions.
-Line dry your clothes.
-Use a rain barrel to collect water, which is then used for watering flowers and gardens.
-Reuse bags whenever possible.
-Turn off water while brushing your teeth, shaving, etc.
-Use low-flow toilets and showerheads/faucets.
-If replacing a toilet isn't feasible at this time, put in a 20 oz. bottle filled with sand or another heavy substance to limit the water usage of the toilet.
-Use ceiling fans to your advantage.
-Use Energy Star appliances.
-Compost yard clippings, kitchen waste, and leaves.

The list goes on for miles, but here are a few links for those who are interested:

http://lowimpactliving.com/

http://www.ecocycle.org/hazwaste/recipes.cfm

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/annies-top-10-vinegar-uses.html

http://futuremakers.com.au/category/all/