A day of gathering

I spent the day today gathering materials for the rain barrel project. This required some travel but not much and in the end it will be worth it on two different fronts. The first benefit is I will be able to harvest rain water and begin my journey to self reliance. This material pick-up did turn out to be a little pricier that I thought it would be that is where number two comes into play. I was able to get 20 barrels for 20 dollars. Now one thing I found out when searching for rain barrel was that they are rather pricey. So this will be where I benefit. Since getting those massive babies home, which is a story in its own; it popped into my mind that I can mark up the remaining barrels 90% and still not be above other asking prices for used barrels. I might have to store them go a while but if I can sell the 12 I will not use for $120 I will not only get my rain barrel set up for free, I will have additional money to apply to other projects! 

So there we are more than enough to play with!

I wish that would have been the only money I needed to spend for this project to be successful but it wasn't. There are many components to the rain barrel system, which was detailed in the Water Barrel Materials Post. For the other materials I went to my local Lowes. After purchasing the additional materials that included cinder blocks and various PVC pipe and pipe fittings my total out of pocket cost for materials was $73 and some change. Well minus a few dollars for a couple sodas and candy for my little helper, but hey no labor is free these days! 

I am using 1/2 inch PVC 

For each set up which will consist of 2 barrels I will use the following 1 T, 1 90 Elbow, 2 Male and 2 Female adapter pieces, a shut off valve and a gutter adapter. 

Also with all of that I have some scraps that were in my shed that I will use for the overflow and the trip from the gutter to the barrel. 

Recycled goods!

Then the final components of the project that I got today were the cinder blocks. I got 16 of them and plan to use 4 per barrel. Just in case you do not know what cinder blocks are here is a picture for you. 

Now that I have all of the materials minus the pressure treated 4x4's I can do some dry runs with the layout and see how I would like to set up the future rain harvesting systems.