Water, Water Everywhere

When we installed our new rain harvesting system a month ago, we anticipated that a good rain of about a half inch would fill up all three barrels.  What we didn't anticipate was that we would get about that much rain while we were still on our trip to Oregon.  Rain in San Diego in September is unusual and that much rain that early in the rain year, which starts July 1st, is really outside the normal pattern.

When we got home, we found that all of the barrels were already full of water, and had actually overflowed, digging trenches in the bare earth under the overflow ports.

Cindy used some of the water in the garden after we got home, but when we heard that more rain was expected this week, she got to work to create some drainage for the overflow to channel it into the canyon but away from the edge of the canyon behind our fence, since erosion of the edge of the back yard is our principal concern.

The biggest problem was how to route the overflow from the two big tanks behind the garage out over the fence and over into the canyon, but she solved that problem with some long pieces of piping pushed through the jungle behind the fence.  Someday we'll have to clear out some of that brush, but for now the overflow is routed away from the house and away from the fence.

We've now had almost two inches of rain this rain year and I know she's already regretting not getting bigger tanks, maybe the big mama 620 gallon tank or the REALLY big 2825 gallon tank.  It's probably a good thing our yard isn't any bigger than it is.