Of course it rained!

I bought two 50lb bags of feed yesterday. Since Monday was the hottest day of the year, I thought it was safe to leave them in the back of the pickup until Andy could get to them. They sat in the bed of the pickup overnight, and I woke up to the smell of rain and the memory of Andy not taking them out! Oh, drats! You live and learn, I guess.

Harvesting the Rain

We have found that harvesting rain through barrels and buckets is the most efficient method of watering our farm animals. We collect the run off from the barn and fill the Power Rangers' water feeder through the spigot. The Donnas have water cups that fill from the same barrel when they peck at them. The rabbits have a self-watering bucket, but it is currently hooked up to a city water spigot. It has a mechanism that works like a toilet float and fills when it gets below a certain point. (I hope that's not a permanent solution...)

We hope to find a way to collect more runoff to recycle in the garden and to somehow water the lawn with our wasted bath water and dish water, but the waste from inside our home is a continuing discussion whereas the garden problem can be remedied in an afternoon of brainstorming. 

The amount of water wasted inside and outside a single family home is outrageous!  We're just attempting to make a difference on our tiny parcel. It's a bit of work for some things, but worth the savings in the end. 

If you have ideas, please share!  

It's a learning process.

With the torrential downpour we experienced yesterday, we learned to make sure there is adequate drainage in our pots. Even though that is something we should have already known, we are always learning.