First world problems

[Cervus]

The "turquoise" skirt I bought on eBay turned out to be more greenish than turquoise, and it doesn't match the tops I'd planned to wear with it. I can send it back and get a refund without a hassle, but I'm bummed because I was planning to wearing a particular outfit this weekend and so far I haven't found any skirts that match exactly what I want.

[Keket]

My mom packed a bunch of prepackaged crackers and cheese whiz in my suitcase. I'm not sure why, I've never liked cheese whiz even as a kid.

[WildaBeast]

The rain barrel I set up last weekend got almost filled up from the relatively light rain we had Sunday afternoon. So I had no place to store the water from the heavier rain we got today. And it filled up the barrel and overflowed it, which isn't supposed to happen. The way it's supposed to work is once it fills up the back pressure is supposed to send any excess water down the downspout.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

How big is this barrel, and how large an area drains into it? Maybe you need a bigger one. My sister's rain barrel is a barrel (i.e., around 55 gallons), fills from the back downspout (about 1/2 the roof) and would not fill from a light rain.

My front downspouts water either the lawn (on the east side) or the garden (on the west side) through french drains. It looks like they go into a hole in the ground, but that hole is actually the entrance to the drain. Should I ever get too much rain for the french drain to handle, it will come up at the other end.

Oh, and Wilda, did you eat any of that retirement cake on April first? Even though you were overly full from lunch? He doesn't retire every day, you know (I assume this was my brother's party).

Seaboe

[WildaBeast]

It's this one, 58 gallons. It fills from the back downspout, which would be almost the entire back side of the roof. Being a ranch style house, there is a fairly large amount of roof area for a small house.

And to answer your second question, yes and yes.

[Alarm]

Originally Posted by WildaBeast

It's this one, 58 gallons. It fills from the back downspout, which would be almost the entire back side of the roof. Being a ranch style house, there is a fairly large amount of roof area for a small house.

And to answer your second question, yes and yes.

I wouldn't call 58 gallons of rain, from one event, a "light rain".

ETA, that barrel is almost identical to the one I have for my home.

[WildaBeast]

Perhaps I misspoke. I just meant it was significantly less rain than what we got yesterday. I was surprised that it was enough to almost fill the barrel, though.

[Alarm]

I wasn't criticizing...
I just found it funny that you gathered that much rainwater and still considered it "light"

[thorny locust]

Originally Posted by Alarm

I wouldn't call 58 gallons of rain, from one event, a "light rain"..

I would.

People tend to underestimate how much water there is in rainfall.

http://cals.arizona.edu/cochise/wate...erharvest.html

A one-inch rain will collect 600 gallons from a 1,000 square foot roof, while 4,500 square foot lot will receive 2,800 gallons

https://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthrain.html (a site with fewer exclamation marks; I deleted a couple from the above quote):

says a 40' x 70' roof will collect 1,743 gallons from one inch of rain.

I don't know how large WildaBeast's roof is, and probably not all of it drains into the barrel; but my guess is that a 58 gallon rainbarrel is going to fill with a tenth of an inch of rain or so; which, if the ground is dry to start with, is barely enough to moisten the surface, and will leave bone dry soil just below the surface.

ETA: while it depends on the soil type, in general it takes about an inch of rain to wet the soil for about one foot down. Root zone depth depends on both the soil and the species, and can range from about 6" to over 20 feet. Most healthy soils, if moderately but not extremely dry to start with, can soak up a couple of inches in one rain with no problem. A frequent rule of thumb for irrigating crops is one inch per week, more in hot weather; though it depends on the crop.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Yeah, once he said it gathered the rain from half of a ranch style roof, I ceased to be surprised that it had filled up. Hey, maybe he can/should link up a series of barrels, so that as one fills up it will send the overflow into the next and then the next.

If we get 1/2" of snow, and it slides off 1/4 of my roof (and the foot print of my house is fairly small), it will fill my front porch steps 8" deep, so I am aware of how much water falls from the sky in even a fairly minor event.

Seaboe

[WildaBeast]

Originally Posted by Seaboe Muffinchucker

Hey, maybe he can/should link up a series of barrels, so that as one fills up it will send the overflow into the next and then the next.

I thought of that. I'm not sure I'd want to buy another one identical to the one I have if only because it was a bit pricy. The only reason I went with it was because it was available from a nearby store and I wanted to have it in time for last Sunday's rainfall. Now that I have this one I might look into making a homemade one to collect the overflow.

[Mouse]

I found a good mother's day gift on etsy but I'm not sure yet if I'll get it because my bank forbids foreign transactions. I'd have to sign a piece of paper authorizing this purchase!

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Originally Posted by WildaBeast

I'm not sure I'd want to buy another one identical to the one I have if only because it was a bit pricy.

Doesn't the local government offer discounted rain barrels? In Seattle, once a year, you can get a rain barrel very cheap through a program run by Seattle Public Utilities. Of course, there are a limited number of barrels and they do run out.

If you choose to make your own, remember that wood grows algae and that you'll need both a low tap and a mosquito screen. That's probably an unnecessary statement, but a reminder never hurts.

My FWP for today? Not being able to transfer an investment account as fast as I'd like because I have to snail mail a form, and I left the address I'm mailing it to at home.

Seaboe

[Beachlife!]

Originally Posted by Mouse

I found a good mother's day gift on etsy but I'm not sure yet if I'll get it because my bank forbids foreign transactions. I'd have to sign a piece of paper authorizing this purchase!

If you setup a Paypal account connected to your bank account, you can get around this.

[WildaBeast]

Originally Posted by Seaboe Muffinchucker

Doesn't the local government offer discounted rain barrels?

Some cities do, but apparently not here as far as I can tell. I got a discounted compost bin years ago, though.

[rockland6674]

I had four frozen waffles for breakfast yesterday morning. That's all I've eaten over the past four days, yet I can't stay out of the bathroom. I'm not particularly hungry either.

[WildaBeast]

I read that as "four dozen waffles" at first. That would have explained the other things.

[Cervus]

I've just had no luck ordering stuff online lately. A pink skirt I bought turned out to actually be mauve-colored instead of the bright pink that it looked in the picture. It doesn't match anything I own, and mauve is a depressing dull color.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

This is for WildaBeast

Will Colorado Finally Legalize Rain Barrels?

The Colorado legislature, at long last some would say, is hearing a bill to legalize rain barrels. Yes. Rain barrels. Up to this point, it has been illegal to connect your downspout to a rain barrel, except in limited circumstances not typically found in urban environments. For those of you living outside of Colorado, your eyes did not deceive you. Under Colorado state law, possessing a small quantity of marijuana is legal, while possessing a rain barrel is not (technically, the illegal part is the connection to the downspout and collection of rainwater).

Seaboe

[Dasla]

Ants have eaten the roots of my strawberry runners. naughty ants!