Your laugh for today

[JDgreen227]

Yesterday morning I wrote out a check for $1500 to pay my credit card bill, then paid my latest utility bill online, another $225. Then I drove my truck to the gas station and spent $100 to fill the nearly empty fuel tank, and also pumped $44 worth of diesel fuel in a pair of cans. From there I went to the grocery store, where I spent another $120.

Nothing to laugh about yet, is there? Okay, about 4 pm, I was working outside, looked like a storm was heading our way. I went to my garden shed and got about 25 empty 5-gallon pails, and when the downpour hit, I was scrambling around in the driving rain, getting soaked, while filling the pails from my downspouts. After a half hour and a half inch of rainfall, I was congratulating myself on collecting 120 gallons of "free" water, which I will use to irrigate my garden. And there has already been 5 inches of rainfall this month, so there is no real reason to collect rainwater..."free" or not.

Does anybody else see some irony here.....? :laughing:

 

[Mike Costello]

I see the irony, but there's always an opportunity here too. Sell all that water to the folks in Texas--they could use some now!

 

[jonyyuma]

Oopps, I collect rain water too.. Free??? Got to carry buckets to area needed..Still feel better than dragging a hose, and spraying garden with treated water...I wonder how much particulate is in the rain? I mean when it isn't muddy?

 

[Redneck in training]

Yesterday morning I wrote out a check for $1500 to pay my credit card bill, then paid my latest utility bill online, another $225. Then I drove my truck to the gas station and spent $100 to fill the nearly empty fuel tank, and also pumped $44 worth of diesel fuel in a pair of cans. From there I went to the grocery store, where I spent another $120.

Nothing to laugh about yet, is there? Okay, about 4 pm, I was working outside, looked like a storm was heading our way. I went to my garden shed and got about 25 empty 5-gallon pails, and when the downpour hit, I was scrambling around in the driving rain, getting soaked, while filling the pails from my downspouts. After a half hour and a half inch of rainfall, I was congratulating myself on collecting 120 gallons of "free" water, which I will use to irrigate my garden. And there has already been 5 inches of rainfall this month, so there is no real reason to collect rainwater..."free" or not.

Does anybody else see some irony here.....? :laughing:

I read few years back that there was a guy in Australia bottling rain water and selling it as Heavenly nectar.

 

[firedog]

I read few years back that there was a guy in Australia bottling rain water and selling it as Heavenly nectar.

Or "Windmill Punch"

 

[JDgreen227]

Oopps, I collect rain water too.. Free??? Got to carry buckets to area needed..Still feel better than dragging a hose, and spraying garden with treated water...I wonder how much particulate is in the rain? I mean when it isn't muddy?

It rains often enough in mid-Michigan (16 inches in my area in May) the rainwater is quite clear. I keep trying to come up with a more practical way to collect it than using pails. Rain barrels are not a solution because of landscaping around the house. I would love to be able to buy and have buried a 5000 gallon tank underground about 250 feet from our house, when we built on we had to install a sump pump in that basement and the original house basement had only a floor drain and that never backed up. New basement is in an area always wet, sump pump in there probably pushed out 30,000 gallons to my dry well 250 feet away downhill, during May. When I plumbed sump pump I added a secondary outlet about two feet above ground level that is valved to push out sump discharge during months when buried primary sump discharge line freezes up. If I could get a 1,000 gallon tank cheap I would put it near my garden 150 feet from house and use the secondary outlet and flex pipe to fill it as needed. For now I dump my rain water into a pair of (50 gallon with cut off tops) plastic drums back in the garden plot...yes, I keep them covered most of the time.

 

[96silverbullet]

We finally got rain yesterday, 1.8 inches at my house a couple of miles southwest of Austin. Yeehaw! I grewup in Midland MI and never thought I'd celebrate the rain, but we really do here.

 

[czechsonofagun]

My mom and sister used to prefer rain water to wash hair - supposed to be better for the hair.

 

[tungularafishcamp]

I read somewhere that fresh water will be more valuable than gasoline by the end of this century, I guess it already is with the price some folks pay for bottled water.
Rick

 

[Bartcephus]

I read somewhere that fresh water will be more valuable than gasoline by the end of this century, I guess it already is with the price some folks pay for bottled water.
Rick

That is sooooo true! $1.00 per 16 oz bottle of WATER.

 

[JDgreen227]

That is sooooo true! $1.00 per 16 oz bottle of WATER.

You know, as much as I gripe about all the rainfall we have been soaked with this year, if I think about it, too much rain is better than too little or none at all. I don't think Michigan will ever have a drought like so many other states experience. Well, just in case, I was out collecting more rainwater today...got another 40 gallons !!!

 

[firemanpat2910]

North Fl finally is getting some rain, I hope it rains all weekend like they predict. What do you do to keep the rain water buckets from becoming mosquito farms? I dont think you could leave a glass of water outside over night here with out it becoming a breeding zone.

 

[JDgreen227]

North Fl finally is getting some rain, I hope it rains all weekend like they predict. What do you do to keep the rain water buckets from becoming mosquito farms? I dont think you could leave a glass of water outside over night here with out it becoming a breeding zone.

I dump the 5 gallon pails of rainwater into a pair of plastic 50 gallon barrels with tight fitting lids. Also add a cup of bleach to each barrel when full. The areas around us have many low spots that collect water in the fields, so I doubt my barrels spawn that many skeeters compared to those.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I read somewhere that fresh water will be more valuable than gasoline by the end of this century, I guess it already is with the price some folks pay for bottled water.
Rick

In my college ag courses it was firmly understood that we will run short on water long before we'll run out of arable land.

I could go a long time without gasoline, but without water I wouldn't last more than a few days.

 

[Gizmo2]

I read somewhere that fresh water will be more valuable than gasoline by the end of this century, I guess it already is with the price some folks pay for bottled water.
Rick

You have to wonder how far in the future will we need to buy clean air?
Never in a million years when I was growing up did I ever imagine someone making huge money on selling water.

 

[BobRip]

We don't inherit the earth from our parents, we borrow it from our kids. Take care of it.

 

[Car Doc]

The mental visual was funny of a guy running around wagging buckets in pouring rain trying to catch run off that was good thanks!

Heck I put approx 1000 gallons on my little 4800 sq ft garden nearly every night (5g a min for 3.5 hours) catching that much rain would be hard w/o a decent sized pond.

Plus we have had no rain whatsoever this year and what we did came in ice balls along with 60 mph winds and I guess we had one actual rain that was 1 and 75 hundredths not much good.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Id do the same here when we redo the house Im incorporating a 1200 gallon collection tank for the garden. Rainwater has a bit of nitrogen in it a and is better than treated water. I have a friend that has a house on a mountain. He has a concrete roof thats cupped in. It has a drain to the outside. THe first few minutes of rain goes into a grey water tank for the garden and yard to takce care of bird crap and leaves and such. After a few minutes a timer will close that valve and open another that runs it into his 1200 gallon tank and and additional 500 gallon add on tank. THis water is pumped up to a black plastic 1700 gallon tank 150 feet up above his cabin. Gravity feeds his home at a great pressure through a filtering system.


He is building a extension for his auger truck to bore a 36 inch wide 20 feet deep cistern in the rock under his home. I dont see anything wrong with getting something free.

 

[tcreeley]

I was planting some seeds yesterday from packets. I think it was turnips and carrots. I had finished the other stuff and it was buggy and I wasn't so patient any more. But some how I had tossed those two packets someplace and couldn't find them. It had probably been an hour or two earlier, probably stashed them considering I was starting to get annoyed a bit. But I figured there weren't many places to look so I'd bear with it a little longer. But the bugs weren't no help, and I was starting to wonder. Then without thinking I pulled the two packets out of my pocket.... I knew they'd turn up if I was patient!

 

[Tororider]

If you are looking for barrels that got in the landscape, sams club has some that look like Terra cotta with a planter on top. 65 gallons I think. I got two.