Friday, July 30, 2010

what I saw out front

I should've said ceiling, not roof... the underside of the roof over the front step:



That was taken Thursday morning as Marty and Ashlee were packing to go to Austin to surprise Kirby for his birthday, so I couldn't show it yesterday.

The reason we have water in buckets is that it ran off the roof, and Keith changed the buckets out. The reason we keep them is that five gallons of water is a big deal on a 100 degree, 10% humidity day. A big pretty collection barrel with a spigot at the bottom would be prettier. It would also be pretty much $200. And it wouldn't have made those "lights."

And the photo below was taken last Monday, partly for Adam Daniel. It's documentation that when the trash pick-up truck puts the little dumpsters down in our cul-de-sac, sometimes they land looking like R2-D2. It amuses me every time, because I am easily amused.


3 comments:

Glenda said...

Very pretty reflections :).

Hot temps + low humidity are typical for us, too, so my hubby made some rain barrels on-the-cheap several years ago and they're holding up very well. I posted pics & details (though there aren't many details, really) here: http://wrenandstitchy.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/rain-barrels/.

Maybe not to replace your current buckets, but in addition to, if you want to collect more water for anything :).

We use the caught rain to water our veggies when we're having droughts.

We drain the barrels over the winter and haven't had problems with plastic cracking when the temps are below-freezing or during the couple times we had itty-bitty amounts of snow this past winter.

Sandra Dodd said...

Thanks!
http://wrenandstitchy.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/rain-barrels/

That link will be in Keith's e-mail when he gets to work Monday.

Do you take the lid off when it's going to rain or is there a hole in it I didn't see?

Glenda said...

We take the lid off when it's going to rain. We buy those mosquito dunks to keep in there - even with the lid on, the skeeters find a way to get in!

If Keith has any questions, you can message me on FB & I'll pass the message on to Rodney.

He ended up making two more for the backyard -- they are situated so water flowing off our carport is directed to the first barrel, then the first barrel overflows (via a piece of pipe going barrel to barrel) to the second barrel. He used a piece of flashing or something on the carport roof to direct the water to the barrel. We don't have gutters on our house, so I thought that was a pretty creative way to catch at least a bit of the water!