Holding it over a barrel

While my parents were here a couple weeks ago my dad and I took the rather bold (for me, anyway) step of planting some grass in the yard.  Prior to their visit I had gone to Lowe's and purchased, on the recommendation of a store clerk, a bag of something called Turf Builder.  At least I think that's what it was called.  I do know it was specifically not called Grass Seed, which is what I was wanting, but the guy said this was better.  Way better.  So I snapped up a bag of this so-called Turf Builder which was, like, a million times better than regular grass seed and stuff.  And you know, it might actually be.  But when my dad and I spent the evening in the yard raking and sowing and watering, all I could think was "Hmm...there's a lot of stuff here, very little of which actually resembles grass seed."

I watered it vigorously each night for a while, then let nature take over, and even with somewhat sporadic rains to keep things all properly moisturized and whatnot, the results have not exactly been promising.  True, a some verdure has been spotted in the formerly lifeless dirt patch on the western side of the yard, but it's more along the lines of weeds than actual grass.  I'm keeping hope alive, though, and someday we'll get things to grow out there.  Which brings me to the project my wife and I embarked on last week: the construction of a rain barrel:

It was my wife's idea, and I think she's really on to something here.  We like to water a couple shrubs and one specific tree each week and we think it would be kind of cool to do it with water that just kind of shows up out of the sky from time to time.  The barrel we're putting together isn't exactly like the one in the video, and so far all we have is the barrel itself, but I think we're on to something with this.  We need to figure out a good way to divert water from a downspout, but this one looks promising. Hopefully we can get it finished up soon and test it out with some of the spring rains.

I should also mention that while my parents were here we got an incredible amount of stuff done around the house including, but not limited to, the painting of three rooms.  We made sure to take time for some fun stuff too (which is not meant as an implication that painting with parents isn't fun, but you know what I mean...) like going to an art fair downtown and playing some cards.  It's cool having a place for friends and family to come visit, especially now that we have a place with a proper guest bedroom and bathroom.  :)