The Other Thing I Did Last Weekend

Well, actually we did last weekend. We being me and D, the man formerly known as "my husband". It didn't take me long to realize I was going to get sick of typing "my husband" every time I mentioned him. Besides, D is a little more personal.

So, anyway, what we did was build a rain barrel. We'd been saving a magazine article with instructions for several years and finally decided it was time. We aren't completely finished, but close enough to share.

We used a 32 gallon trash can and we drilled two holes in it, one near the top and one near the bottom.

The hole near the bottom is where water will come out when we want it, so we put a spigot in it.

The hole near the top is the overflow for when the barrel gets too full, so we put a hose connector in it.

We will connect a length of hose to this when we install the rain barrel in its final location. Then we drilled holes in the lid of the trash can for ventilation.

We want to let air out of the can, but also keep leaves, bugs, etc. out of it, so we covered the holes with screen.

What we have left to do is cut a hole in the lid for the downspout connection. We think we need one more piece to be able to connect this to the downspout where we want it, so we'll have to go back to the store before we can finish. We also need some blocks to set it on. I want it set up high enough that I can get a small watering can under that spigot. I'll post a picture of the completed rain barrel once it's installed.

For anyone wondering, we found the instructions in the October, 2008 edition of "Workbench" magazine. We got all of the pieces we've used so far for less than $60.

Wednesday's birds: goldfinch, grackle, junco, robin, house sparrow, song sparrow, house finch, chickadee, bluejay, cardinal.