Maintaining A Healthy Rain Barrel

  It doesn't matter if you collect rain water for your own consumption or to water your garden, you still need to do a yearly maintenance to them. Why? Its to keep them in tip top shape and it keep's the water in them safe for you and your plants.You wouldn't believe the stuff that gets inside of them, especially when they aren't in much use (in the off season)! So what are the thing's you should do to your rain barrels or other rain collection systems? (Click her to learn how to make a Rain Barrel)  Also You may like Got Rain Barrel Questions?
  Take a good look at them before you even drain them and remove them from the stand you have them on. As you can see by from my pictures, the winter freezing of the ground made mine a little unlevel and some of  my connections come apart. So I will have to fix that as well!

See how the became unlevel

Check All The Hardware:
  You will want to totally drain your barrel before you get started. Then Check all your valves, connection, screens that you may have at the enter point and the overall condition of the barrel or container, replace anything that needs replaced. Look inside it, I am sure you will see lots of yucky stuff, maybe even algae but that's okay we are gonna take care of all of this shortly and even have some preventative maintenance. At this point just spray out with you garden hose as much as you can.

Clean The Inside:
  If you need to scrub the interior of the barrel a long handled brush will work well. Using a mixture of  light bleach and water solution; scrub the interior of the barrel’s walls and bottom with the brush. Then rinse your barrel again and let dry. This is something that you may not have to do if you have a constant flow of water going through your barrels. But if you forgot to drain all the water out for the winter, Yuck!


Tip: Paint your rain barrels a dark color to prevent the sunlight from directly hitting your water and promoting algae growth.

Purifying The Water For Drinking and To Maintain:
  You can add a little household bleach to your water to keep it maintained through out the year. A little won't hurt you plants either. I would put a little less in the water if you arn't gonna drink out of it and it will still keep the water cleaner!
   According to the Red Cross, “The only agent used to purify water should be household liquid bleach. Add 16 drops of bleach per gallon of water if the water is cloudy (with an eye dropper), stir and let stand for 30 minutes. (If it’s clear, only add 8 drops.)  If the water does not have a slight bleach odor [after 30 minutes], repeat the dosage and let stand another 15 minutes.”  Use household bleach (5.25% sodium hypochlorite as its only active ingredient) and yes this is for drinking!
 

How much bleach to use for purifying water for drinking (according to the Red Cross):

amount of water	clear water	cloudy water
1 quart	2 drops	4 drops
1 gallon	8 drops	16 drops
5 gallons	1/2 teaspoon	1 teaspoon
55 gallons	5 1/2 teaspoons	11 teaspoons

After I built a foundation out of railroad ties.

 Revelation 21:1"And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb."

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U.S. Drought 2012 and a story of my Grammie

As everybody  in the U.S. knows we have had a very dry summer! It reminds me of one hot dry summer that I stayed with my Grammie. We had three large gardens going as always, since we preserved everything. I was about 13 and when I say hot, I mean hot! I would drive the tractor, with her on the back from garden to garden as we picked and watered. The road to the potatoes garden was very bumpy. On one of the hottest days of this summer, as always I drove her up the road but this time was a memorable event. As I drove she would say, "speed up its hot", then "slow down, you are jarring me to death", then "come on Clint we have to hurry", then "Please slow down I am about to bounce off". I couldn't please her, lol! So I stopped and asked her how she wanted me to drive, lol! To this day we laugh and talk of that day!

Well below is an article on the weather her this year. When you get  to the bottom the is a link to a map that monitors the damaged areas of this drought. West Virginia doesn't look that bad but to us it feels awful. I can't even imagine what the rest of you are going through! It looks like many areas need lots of prayer! So water water water those plants! Make a Few Rain Barrels to collect water.

"STATE REMAINS ABNORMALLY DRY, DESPITE RECENT RAIN"
Article from http://www.wvagriculture.org/index.html

  Most of West Virginia remained “abnormally dry,” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor map dated July 17, 2012. However, recent rains resulted in a small portion of southwest West Virginia being removed from drought status, an improvement over previous conditions that showed three-quarters of the state’s topsoil moisture ranked as “poor.”

   Despite marginal farm conditions, West Virginia has not had it nearly as bad as the majority of the country, which is suffering from an unprecedented heat wave and an historic drought.

   Nationally, nearly 90 percent of the nation’s corn and soybean crops are located in drought-stricken areas. The worsening drought conditions will likely drive up food prices in the near term, and meat prices by next year because corn and soybeans are predominant ingredients in animal feed.

   “I have requested farmers to keep detailed records of drought-related losses in the hope that Congress restores emergency funding to the Farm Bill that’s currently under consideration,” said Commissioner of Agriculture Gus R. Douglass.

   He called on Congress to move the bill to the White House and to consider the plight of the farmers who had high hopes for a record corn crop earlier this year.

   “Farming is the most important industry in this country,” said Commissioner Douglass. “First, it provides the food we all rely upon each day. Second, it is among our most-important exports, regardless of the condition of the world economy at any given time. And third, it represents the finest of American ideals: ingenuity, hard work and service to others. As a nation, we must do what it takes to get these family businesses through this potentially ruinous natural disaster.”

   The national drought map can be found at www.droughtmonitor.unl.edu. The U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS) has detailed weekly reports on crop and weather conditions around the country. Visit http://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/State_Crop_Progress_and_Condition/index.asp for more information.

The West Virginia Department of Agriculture protects plant, animal and human health through a variety of scientific, regulatory and consumer protection programs, as mandated by state law. The Commissioner of Agriculture is one of six statewide elected officials in West Virginia. For more information, visit www.wvagriculture.org.

Update:"HUGELKULTUR", Raised Bed Experiment Part2

  Well here is an update on my Hugelkultur Bed that I started this spring. I planted three things in the bed to see what it would do (zucchini, Yellow Squash and Cinderella pumpkins). All three are doing remarkable, even through this very hot and dry weather we have had this summer. I have hardly watered it at all, just to see if it does what they say! So far, so good! As you can see by the pumpkin vines, they are doing the best. I have just swirled (yes "swirled" is a Jethro Bodine word) the vines around the Raised Beds in the walk area, Remember in a Urban Garden you try to use all the space you can.

  I am so impressed with this experiment that I plan to do a few more beds just like this one! It has really cut down on my watering in this bed and that was a blessing because where it has been so dry, my Rain Barrels went totally dry, but finally this past week we have had enough rain to fill them back up. Well, I will just leave with a few pictures of what it looks like!

Hulgelkultur Bed

John 15:1-3 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 



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Bathing in a Rain Barrel!

  This has been a long past 2 days! For starters, all my wife wanted for her birthday was our bedroom repainted. Which I love to paint so it was an easy gift for me to give her. Let me tell you, it turned out much better then I thought it would, she has a remarkable way of putting colors and things together. Well, we got everything out, primed and painted and everything put back in and she got the house cleaned all in 13 hours. I thought that was pretty good timing! 

  So on to the reason why it is titled "Bathing in a Rain Barrel". Sometime after non yesterday, we started loosing our city water pressure. Yes, we had another water main break! I got my shower before it went out,  :-)! But.....I can't say the rest of the family did! It wouldn't have been so bad but my wife had somewhere to be and my son had to work today. I looked at my wife and said, "I have 110 gallons of rain water" and to my surprise she gave me a large pan and said, "go fill it up". 

  See, her dad was a Boy Scout Master and she had been drug on many camping trips and had bathed in many creeks. After she got done with her bath she said, "everyone should have a rain barrel for emergencies".  So here is another great reason to have rain barrels, they come in handy during emergencies and make you more sustainable! If you wanted to use the water for drinking water, you could also use a good water filtration system to filter the water. To read my post on how to make a rain barrel, Click Here!

  This is just another way that our Lord will provide for us in time of need! God tells us not to worry, that He will provide those things which we need, not want, just as He does for the birds of the air. As you go through this day look at what all our Lord has provided for you and thank Him! I hope you all have a blessed and wonderful weekend!

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.” Psalm 23:1-3

Making A Rain Barrel

  With the cost of utility bills so high these days and needing a good water supply for your garden. Plus when my wife came to me and said that our water bill had almost doubled since the start of spring, I knew it was time to do something. So I looked into rain barrels. You can catch gallons of water for your plants and rain water is so much better for them. city water, city water has fluoride and chlorine in it. While city water won't kill the plants it does affect their growth. You will see much healthier and greener plants if you have away to save up rain water. You can buy them already made up or you can do like I did and make your own. You can use many different things to catch water in and as long as you place it at a bottom of a down spout and it doesn't leek, everything will work just fine.

  

  Here are my Rain Barrels completed! I made mine a little differently than in the information video I posted. The video is very informative and shows you step by step on how to build one. You can find these 55 gallon plastic drums at car washes, most of the time for free or very little. I have approx. 110 gallons of water and that goes along way. Make sure to drain it part way for the winter, so it will give the water room to expand and not bust the drum if it freezes. Well gook luck and have fun!

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John 4:11  The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?