weekend projects
enclosed one of the rain barrels, less algae & looks better. the 3 cinder blocks tall gives it more gravity feed. I went to home depot and
asked for their selection of pain that got colored and then nobody picked up. I'm not really happy with the yellow - I wanted black, and it is interior paint. But it was cheep. I then experimented with a straw mat thing (the tan under the frame on the left side of the barrel) and really like how that worked. There is a stripe at the edge of the matt which I left unpainted where the numbers are to read how full the tank is (nearly empty right now). The space underneath is already full - the pvc fittings & an old swimming pool which may get set up with the rain water, and its pump might work to augment gravity flow. Projects for next weekend!
The other barrel (300 gal) is syphoning in water from the black 55 gal. The black one will have the gray pan with a float valve to have rain water available in the back yard for pets. I should make an overflow or something so that when it gets full, the excess goes to the 300 gal & the black one stays full, too.
The enclosing projects were all from scrap wood.