Drought Insurance

We have not had rain in our yard since May! I am not exaggerating.
Like many areas of Texas we are under a sever drought and our garden, trees, and yards are suffering. We had been talking about catching rain but we were convinced after our veggie garden died :(

My personal handyman put up a great rain water harvesting system using a set of directions from a workshop I went to. It was affordable and can work with any gutter system.

We were going for the 55 gallon blue barrels but ran across these bad boys.
They are 275 gallons EACH!

The "main" part of construction is the extension from the gutter to the totes (that's the official name).
This elbow is a sort of filter. The first bit or rain will bring debris with it. The water will go straight down and fill up leaving the debris at the bottom. When the downspout fills with water, the rest will go through the elbow and into the totes.....Got that? It's the best I got. Hopefully, the pictures will help.

The debris ends up here and can be cleaned out by opening the red side. But, beware with the pressure of the water. Step away from it when you open it.


Having these HUGE tanks in your yard my be obnoxious, or as in some neighborhoods around Waco, they may even be against homeowner association rules but for us it works fine. They are behind our shed which keeps them out of sight, but more importantly, they are near our garden.

We are so excited about them but we have not gotten to use them once!
If you have gutters, $60, and rain, you can do this!
Now all we need is rain!