It’s raining hard, hallelujah!

We created The Deviled Eggery during one of the most extreme droughts in California history. Supporting our more thirsty programs such as the Food Security Garden Network and future land management means needing access to a sustainable source of water. Rainwater is a clean and free source of water, so we have been considering installing a catchment system. Lucky for Petaluma, we have the terrific resources over at Daily Acts and Cool Petaluma to help. We contacted both organizations and they quickly responded with great resources on how to set up rain barrel catchment systems. Their focus is on recycled and toxic-free storage options with substantial documentation for totally inexperienced people (like us). They also provided leads to get a lot of the materials paid for through local funding opportunities and neighbors that have set these systems up before as resources.

We went with two systems. The first one was the “Blue Barrel” rainwater catchment system that uses 55 gallon food grade recycled containers, and comes with all the supplies needed and instructions for assembly. The second system was made from 275-gallon square industrial food-grade IBC containers. Both systems essentially followed the same model - put them on a solid foundation, connect the downspout to a container, connect them all together with pvc piping, allow for overflow, and add a spigot for letting the water out to the garden.

We scheduled a day to set all the systems up, and then learned that an unusual early season rain was coming before then! Our rain water catchment system work party was… get this… rained out! We rescheduled though, and were on our way.

We learned that although the Blue Barrel system is easy to order with everything you need (making planning easy), the assembly takes quite a bit of time. It took three people 6 hours, power tools, a ton of measurement, and more advanced skills than we bargained for. The IBC containers were a lot easier to set up, mostly because there were only 4 to deal with and way fewer parts. The most time intensive part took minimal skill and was done by 2 people - wrapping them in black plastic to keep the sun from hitting the water and growing algae. We qualified to get a lot of the materials cost covered from the Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District rainwater catchment program. Shout out and special thanks to Griffo Distillery for the donated IBC containers!

With over 1,700 gallons of storage, we thought it would take many rainstorms to fill them up. Boy were we wrong! The first very small rain filled them about 10%, and the first (of the 11) atmospheric river completely filled them all up, and this is only pulling from about 600 square feet of roof surface.

Thanks to everyone who pitched in: Brett, Pam, Dwayne, Thia, and Julie.