Shots from a double barrel.

Over the Winter, my rain barrel was neglected and wound up damaged.  I rescued it and then rebuilt it - bigger, bolder, waterier.  As I am not a plumber, there was much to be learned about hosing and connections....caulk, PVC glue, some other stuff.  The guy at the home depot gave me a few pieces that you can't buy individually as they are part of weird kits like a water heater draining kit.  Exciting!

I also had to patch a sizable hole where the original water-spout came out...which involved two chinese-takeout-soup-lids, some pvc glue and some caulk.  I did a pretty good job, but it has a tiny drippy leak there.  It still holds water really well, although if it ever winds up empty again, I'll recaulk it and see if I can't get it to stop.

This is after I finished it - pre-rain.  I still need to patch the old lid and cut the new one.  I want to make sure that mosquitos have a hard time.  I've also just read that garlic oil kills mosquito larvae, so I'm thinking I might press a couple of cloves of garlic into them every now and then to try to stave off the little bugs.  Maybe it'll work?

I use a cut off OJ container for drip-catching - it gets to be about 1/3 full on dry days and I just dump it on a nearby morning glory while I'm filling the big can from the spout.

Gertie, however, decided that it was nicer to drink drips than her sink water and got her head stuck in it last week:

What a goon!

In other news:  Cherry Blossoms and Solar-Powered Lanterns are go:

The big one doesn't get as much sun on the sensor as the little ones do, so it goes out by around 10 or 11, but the little ones stay lit most of the night.  I also have some free-standing solar path lights scattered around.  I feel good about the ambiance... :)

Just so there are some plant pics in the mix:

My luffa has sprouted.  This is actually about a week old, so it has a full set of secondary leaves now.  I so hope that they're productive.  I want to make some luffa soap slices with herbs from the garden and my little gourds.

My lettuce continues to be adorable.

My spinach on the other hand is bolting already.  :(  I'm thinking of ordering a different variety for my succession plantings becuase these have dissapointed me the last two years in a row.