The Kiddie Pool

Most of the summer my five year old spends splashing about in her kiddie pool.  And each year as she gets bigger it seems we acquire a bigger pool to accommodate the splashing.

My husband hates to leave the pool out on the grass for more than a day or so because of the damage it does to the grass.  So more often than not we are draining water out of the pool in the evenings, over the grass, making a muddy swamp out of the lawn.

Then, in a blinding stroke of the obvious, it occurred to us that rather than just let the water run out where it really isn't needed, why not water the garden with the water instead. Duh! 

So now most summer evenings, you can see us lugging buckets of water around the yard, strategically watering the garden while emptying the pool.  The neighbors think we are nuts.  But they thought that before the bucket brigade so no harm done.  And the water is doing double duty, saving both water and money in the process.

But of course, now my husband wants to get a small water pump to eliminate the buckets.  We shall see.  Have a great day!

Rain Barrels

Look at what my hubby installed over the weekend!

Rain Barrels behind corn sprouts and next to the peas

These two rain barrels have been sitting unsold at our local HD for almost two years, taking up valuable space.  My hubby knows the store manager and asked him if we could buy them on the cheap.  We paid less than two for the price of one.  Our city sells rain barrels for a short time each spring.  We even paid less than the subsidized city price and these look much better than then ones the city sells.

Together they can collect 170 gallons of water.  Given the cost of water in our fair city, the rain barrels should pay for themselves in just one summer. 

Now we just need some rain!