I've decided to build a rain barrel for my yard. I don't really know how to do that, but I'll give it my best shot.

Any existing rain barrels in the hood?

I found this video on YouTube. The guy in the fancy shades makes it look easy.

That was very informative, Aaron, and strangely pertinent. I'd just been thinking about installing two rain barrels yesterday.
With the draught draining our water supply and the deluge we got when it did finally rain, it seems short-sighted not to manage things a little more at home. Let me know what you end up doing...

Here's an update on the rain barrel exercise.

1. Obtain barrel. John Teagle took care of that for me. Blue plastic barrels wash up on the shores of Little Stony Point from time to time. LSPCA cuts the tops off and uses them for trash collection. John saved a good one for me, still with an airtight seal. It fit fine in the back of my Subaru.

There was some uncertainty in the pedigree of these barrels. I didn't want to water my garden with something formerly filled with petroleum products. Luckily, my barrel had a sticker still somewhat readable. The former contents: apple juice concentrate, presumably form a processing plant upriver. (This one also had a stamp in the plastic, indication manufacture in Argentina.)

2. Obtain plumbing. The video I posted a few days ago shows three main components to attach to the rain barrel: inlet, faucet, and overflow. I already had an extra faucet and some 3/4" threaded pipe. For inlet I purchased a 4" PVC adapter, a hose clamp, and two flexible articulated downspout adapters.

For overflow I was a bit lost. I stared blankly at the plumbing aisle in Home Depot around two hours. Given the array of options, I suppose I went into some sort of seizure. When I awoke, I found a HD employee and presented him with my plan. His first advice: "You know we sell rain barrels in the gardening department." OK, but this was a project I wanted to use for educational value, to reuse waste barrels, etc. Still unconvinced he did collect a series of 1 1/2" PVC pipes and elbows to route the overflow to my existing drain. The piece to connect to the barrel would be threaded, and he found a hexagonal threaded ring to lock in the pipe from the inside.

3. Obtain hardware. I was planning three openings in the barrel. Guess what? Each opening would be a different size. I asked another Home Depot employee for help sizing the bore bits to the pipes. "You know, we sell rain barrels in our gardening department." Apparently just as I'm getting into the do-it-myself thing, Home Depot is learning about commoditization. For the 3/4" faucet I picked out a 1" wood bore drill bit. For the 1 1/2" overflow I bought a 1 7/8" boring bit and pilot hole adapter. And for the intake...well HD was out of 4 1/4" bits, but I figured I could improvise.

By now I'd collected quite an assortment of items in my cart. Most items cost $1 - $3. The drill bits are by far the most expensive items. These cost around $15 each, and there are three bits. But maybe I'll look for more holes to drill around town. Certainly these tools are available to lend to others in the Chain Gang for your own projects. Please let me know!

Before I left Home Depot, I stopped by the gardening department to look at this rain barrel. $78. And that's already on sale. And it is cheap and ugly. And they designed the intake pipe to be the overflow too. I'm not sure how that will work, unless the barrel somehow includes an anti-gravity machine (in which case $78 is quite the bargain.)

Next time: drilling my first holes, beginning assembly, the platform.

The finished barrel!

I'd like to be sure it works, but I'm still waiting for rain...