So, with no rain here for almost the last two weeks – we were really getting tired of hauling water to the farm for the garden. This morning, under some fairly oppressive heat for early May (low 90’s high humidity) – the gutters were installed on the barn, the rain diverter installed on the downspout – and finally, it was all connected to the rain collection totes.
So, what happened about 4 hours later? One beautiful 30 to 45 minute pop up storm to get the whole system up and running!
Just within that short time – the roof collected enough rain to put 130 to 140 gallons of water on reserve for our future watering needs.
This may sound strange, but watching all of that water pour into the totes was identical to that euphoric feeling we get when picking a big harvest from the garden.
I think at least 5 times I said out loud… “wow..it really works!” You can plan and think things out forever – but nothing beats seeing it all work live! And then came the final test of the retaining wall and drainage system – running out into the heavy rain to see if all of the trenches and drain tile we installed were working as well. What a great sight to stare down into the end of the trench and see water pouring out of the drain tile and away from the barn.
Days like today make all of the work so worthwhile. When things finally work – it just gives a great sense of accomplishment. Don’t get me wrong…we have a few minor bugs to work out – adding a small cover to the water bin where the water comes in – a little bit of extra drain tile needs to be added in front to get water away from the front downspout – and a few tweaks here and there on the flashing to clip some runaway water. But hey…it works!!! and that’s good enough for today!
