Because I'm limited to a 24-inch diameter, I can't do the real whiskey barrels. Thus I'm looking at faux, non-wood ones. As for Kentucky: Maybe they find grounds for marrying within the family in the Bible? After all, Salome could have said "Hey, Uncle Dad" to Herod before requesting John the Baptist's head on a silver platter. Okay, so Herod was technically "Uncle Step Dad" . . . but given the unpleasant outcome of the story, surely we should extrapolate a moral about keeping uncles and fathers separate. And yes, 1st cousins, really. But since we live in Utah, though, I probably shouldn't be talking. We're all polygamists out here, after all -- even non-Mormons such as myself! -Crazy

it REALLY depends on what he is spraying. ask him to give you the name on the chemical so that you can see how it will affect your plants. i spray my house AND garden and fruit trees with Malithion several times a year. but i always quit spraying them at least a month before harvest, most things it says 7-14 days, but i give a little extra time to be sure. same thing with liquid sevin. but many professional grade pest control chemicals are not to even be used near food sources. so you REALLY need to find out what he is spraying and do a little research. BTW, you will hear some organic gardener scream it is all ruined, regardless of what he sprayed. and that MAY be the case, but you must find out for yourself what it is and see if it truly did hurt. i myself have always used chemicals for weed/pest control and probably will. others use strictly organic and get good results from it. i appluad them their efforts, but to me it is easier to use chems and be done with it.

it is BS. just like all the folks that say not to drink from a hose because you get lead poisoning. YES there are trace amounts, but NO they are no where near enough to ever harm you. heck, the algae that grows in teh barrel is worse for you than what is in the runoff of the roof. don't drink straight from the barrel adn you will be fine.

That your barrel hoops are loose is a good sign the wood is not rotting. When hoops have done that I have done the basic wrap thick wire or braided cable and tighten with pliers. I'm sure there are better and better looking solutions.The thick "copper" wire sold by Bonsai nurserys could work."Copper" because it's mostly aluminum,coated with copper, wire.Not very strong but your not asking it to do much more than hold the staves together.