We spent a lot of time outside today.  18 mile bike ride, chalk on the sidewalk, cleaning up the garden.

I brought out my camera to have a record of this

chalk warnings to the dogs

and realized that right around the corner was our beautiful blue rain barrel.

Ours is a standard barrel from Rain Brothers.  If you live in Columbus, seek out these cool dudes.  They have a store with limited hours on Arcadia and Calumet and you can order by phone or email.

We have our barrel mounted on a stand made from wood scraps we had.  The stand allows the water to develop a little head so it will better flow out of the hose at the bottom.  A few plastic elbows later and it was attached to our downspout.  The black tube is a runoff so any excess water flows into the existing drain.

We had another rain barrel out back purchased from that big online gardening shop for almost twice what the rain bros barrel cost.  It cracked all around the bottom this winter, so we will be replacing it soon with another baby blue.

Amazingly, our two rain barrels kept the gardens watered all summer last year.  We only turned on the city water hose to fill up a swimming pool a few times for the girl and wash the dogs.  We saved the energy used in city water treatment and also the cash we pay for water with these simple cisterns.  If you garden, rain barrels are definitely the way to go.