Sunday, March 14, 2010

My Rain Barrel

Over at Reduce Footprints the weekly challenge to change the world is saving water. Of course we all know we should take short showers and keep that bucket underneath to collect some water for cleaning, flushing the toilet etc. Use a wash-bowl for our dishes and throw the saved drain water in the toilet bucket. And don’t let that tap running while brushing our teeth. I’m looking forward to see what the other contributors of the challenge have added to that.

Results and the new challenge are published every Wednesday. I hope you will join the club too. You don’t necessarily have to dedicate a post to the subject, you can submit an older post that meets the criteria as well or just send in a comment.

For me rainwater is an important alternative for the tap and not only for watering my plants, both indoors and outdoors.

So I’m taking the opportunity to show the rescued barrel I use to collect it. Actually it’s not really a curb find, but it was left behind in the yard of that temporary apartment we lived in three years ago. Probably the large plastic container has been used in the world of food production or dining and the little tap is very handy for filling my watering cans.

To be able to use it I had to raise the barrel and found the cast iron understructure of a castaway coffee table perfect for that.

This large watering can came in mint condition from the street as well as several smaller ones I use indoors.

No Cézar, that’s not good drinking water. You better drink from the fresher rainwater in one of the smaller pots that stand around in the yard. By the way if you were wondering how kitty is doing since last time: all his upper teeth and a wart in his face were successfully removed last Monday. Clearly the pain in his mouth is gone and now he loves to go outside again. So we’re all very happy despite the costs. But if you know how to help a blogger earn some cash (if not read my last post) I’d appreciate that very much. Thanks, it’s desperately needed!

7 comments:

tisme said...

My grandmother and mother always used the dishwater to water the indoor plants! They both had beautiful plants, but my Mom can grow anything inside. She said it is the soapy water that makes them grow.

Amila Kanchana said...

The municipal water supply to the hospital where I work contains some minerals that used to corrode some surgical instruments. So a huge rain barrel with a filter was assemble to collect water to clean those instruments. It was a great project and still goes on.

Rebecca - iceblueberries said...

I think collecting rain water is such a great idea. We used to belong to a community garden that had an amazing water catchment system. My husband has been talking about setting up a simple system in our yard, too. He would love your barrel!

Art You Can Wear said...

Rainwater is so often ignored or wasted. My grandmother had rainbarrels at the corners of her house. Rainwater was especially highly regarded for washing your hair, but it's terrific for plants,too.

Unknown said...

It was so nice to "see" you at Reduce Footprints. I love your rain barrel ... and that you use available water so efficiently. And wow ... cutting your water bill in half is significant! Congratulations on that!

Regarding your question on making money online ... I'm going to promote your Etsy shop in twitter and facebook. I'd also like to share a page with you ... it's a group I started where artisans share promotion opportunities so there might be something, there, that will help get your work noticed. Here's the link for that:

http://artisanjewelrydesigners.ning.com/group/promoopportunities

Just browse through & you'll find links for artist features, etc.

I've heard of a program where one can tweet for sponsors. I haven't tried it but have read that there is money to be made. Here's that link:
http://sponsoredtweets.com/

Hopefully some of that will help!

I'm going to add your blog to my blog roll ... that way I won't miss a thing! :-)

Unknown said...

I just realized that this post was a year ago. Hopefully, by now, money isn't so tight but ... still ... never hurts to promote one's work. :-)

Le-Chat said...

SF, even though it's been a year I still feel the pain of that huge bill, so thanks a million!