Rain barrels

Holy moly does water come off the roof! We had one good rain yesterday and we went from bone dry to overflow. I filled up four gallons for watering our seedlings and baby chicks. It's going to rain again today and then again later in the week. So much water and so little to do with it! We can't drink it or use it for cooking (it's not just rainwater, it's runoff from the roof... bird poo, dirt, all that good stuff). If anyone has any suggestions on how to make lots of water useful, I'm all ears.

Rain barrels and compost bin

We spent all weekend outside again today. I dug trenches for the potatoes, which will probably be arriving this week. I thought I was going to die. Unfortunately, we don't have a mechanical piece of equipment that will dig trenches and create mounds
of dirt.


Roger built a compost bin out of pallets.



We also put a rain barrel under one of the gutters. In order to do this, we had to take a saw and cut the gutter and route it into the barrel. There is an overflow tube so when the water reaches the top of the barrel it was run out of the barrel and into the gutter underground. And yes, Roger is polishing it. He cleans everything.



I had to put a netting over the top of the chickens... they are starting to try to fly out. Unfortunately, they're going to have to stay in the pool for another week. It's too cold and they're too young to go into the barn yet, even with the heat lamp. They're getting so big so fast! They're inhaling food... I can't keep the food containers full!


Roger also got on top of the barn and cleaned out the gutters. They've been overflowing when it rains, and holy cow now we know why. I would have taken a picture, but it's just a giant mound of black sludge, and you can use your imagination for that one.