Water!!!!

Oh have we been busy! As it was fine today we decided that it was time to get on with installing the water butts to make maximum use of all the free water that drops from the clouds onto our little bit of England. We had butts sited last year to collect the water from the back roof of the house, the shed, the sunroom and the greenhouse. But we hadn't any way of collecting from the front roof....which actually faces the prevailing winds....so obviously gets the bulk of the rain.

So...as we now have a suitable drill end for making holes in plastic drums we got on with it.

Firstly I had to empty all the butts. They were mostly low because we have been irrigating the greenhouse with what we had (we are metered here on the IOW so we don't use tap water if we can possibly help it.

Then we put this one against the shed. This is a bit Heath Robinson, but it is tucked away. I have set it high enough to make it easy to fill cans from this one.
This one replaced the one that was here last year. Long time readers of my blog will remember that our water butts all collapsed last year and we were given replacements by Blackwall free of charge. The only problem was that the replacement kits were not so tall as the previous ones and they used to overflow when full. Irritating! So we moved this bigger one in which needed a hole drilled in it and did it to the exact height needed for the inlet from the downpipe.

I need to get another hose connector for the tap on this one. It will be a back up for the greenhouse irrigation system.
This one takes the water from the sunroom roof. It is set up to irrigate the greenhouse continually.
These two are the new ones which take the water from the front roof of the house. They are just inside the back gate and are fed by a hose through the fence to a rainsaver fixed on the downpipe jut around the corner of the house. I was a bit doubtful whether this one would work, but a watering can poured into the gutter produced a gush moments later in the butt.

These two have an interlinking kit.

I need some hose connectors for these taps so that these can also be back ups for the greenhouse irrigation.

When we are doing anything that requires a bit of physical effort and precision drilling we argue a lot!!!! I'm glad none of you could hear us! Fortunately (for us...not him) the neighbour on this side of the house is deaf.