Easy Rain Barrel

Let me show you how easy rain barrels can be. These will store some water for your needs. They have been in use for over 4 years and have been happily providing water for the yard and garden.

1. The first step is to get your plastic 55 gallon barrel. These were from a famous pickle manufacturer at a cost of $5 per barrel.
2. Next drill a hole in the barrel for the faucet to slip through. Later renditions of this barrel had the spigot a little higher on the barrel. This was in the flat spot of the barrel making it easier and you did not need to elevate the barrel to get water out.
3. Flush the adaptor through the barrel and use plastic plumbing cement to attach the plastic coupler inside the barrel to the adaptor. This is added protection to keep the adaptor from coming out.
4. Attach the spigot to the adaptor.
5. Put screen over the top of the barrel and tighten the cover so that is snug.

That is 5 steps for an easy rain barrel. You will be amazed at how quickly you can capture 55 gallons of water from your roof. These will serve you well in a drought situation.

We have the capacity to store 170 gallons of water in our three barrels and have run out of water in rare times. If rain is forecast during a drought we will typically empty a lot of the barrels to soften the ground up.

The reason to put the spigot higher on the easy rain barrel is so that you can easily get a water can under it and so some residual water will weigh the barrel down.

The last thing you want to see when you bypass switches to the rain barrel is that it is out of place. I hope the easy rain barrel will keep your plants watered this summer.