Hit Came a Hard Rain

It's been dry of late—both my 55-gallon rain barrels were nearly empty. But earlier today we had a short storm, a genuine toad-choker. I had checked the weather forecast this morning to make sure it wasn't going to rain before I sprayed my kale with BT, and sprayed away. Like washing your car and hanging out laundry, I guess spraying BT is a sure way to make it rain.

It was light rain at first, and I checked the barrels and happily found the water trickling in. But then the bottom fell out. I went back out a few minutes later and found this—both barrels full and the water overflowing onto the porch. (The water enters the barrel on the left from the downspout going into the top, then flows through a connector into the barrel on the right causing them to fill together).

I pulled the downspout out of the barrel to send the overflow out into the yard. I am astounded every time I see the amount of water coming off the roof. Not quite a fire hose, but close:

It kills me not to be catching that water for the garden, so I grabbed another plastic trash can (33 gallons)—it took about 90 seconds for it to fill up. Out of barrels and containers, I pointed the spout out into the yard:

I could have captured nearly 700 gallons of water, I believe, in the half-hour the storm lasted (90 seconds to fill a 33 gallon container equals 660 gallons in a half-hour, right?).