Hi kate..isn't that Google amazing? I don't remember what I did before there was a google..lol. Thanks very much, for that link...the directions were very good and seem to be easy enough to follow. Especially the part about how to put the spigot in the bottom of the barrel. I think the tin snips might be easier than the hacksaw they suggested. Good idea about having someone hold it for you. I suppose that will be fine with snips. I can't imagine trying to use a hacksaw and managing to keep it connected to the gutter. Was there a particular reason you don't recommend typical garbage cans? Did you have trouble with one? vstech...when you say the overflow is a joke...does that mean the barrel is going to fill up quickly and have a lot of overflow? I guess I'm not following you about the sealed barrel. Sounds like you have been very creative in setting up your watering system. If you ever get around to putting any photos online, I would love to see them. mtmama...ok, so you are just saving the cold water that runs...great idea. Wow, you really do a lot to conserve water. How long have you been having a drought? Byron...I have never had a well...so not sure how all that works. If I am following you correctly, the well requires that you pump out the water, so that is different than me just turning on a spigot coming from the house. But your pump has low enough pressure that you just can run it directly into the soaker hose. Do I have it right? We have recently had our water pressure at the faucets checked and it was about 80 pounds. That goes directly into the soaker hose without a problem. I wouldn't have even thought I needed a pressure reducer. Thanks again for all the helpful information and for the links.. :-) Adam

my ideal hose would be "cordless". Maybe some kind of a sending unit on the faucet that would "beam" the water over to me at the nozzle! ha ha ha Actually, the hose doesn't seem to matter, I just use a lot of those "hose guides" to keep the hose from killing what I'm trying to save. I have those things all over the yard, in all the corners of the flowerbeds. The best ones are the ones that look like pineapples that my hubby got me for christmas from Lowe's. They are cute, and work well, too.

I would just get the plastic ones as suggested. they will leak or break it you ruff handle them, but they are cheap and can buy 3 to 4 to one vs the $4 to $7 dollar and up heavy duty brass ones. I find that rubber hose out last the end connectors. I have pex kit so I get the heavy duty brass ones and pex ring them on. Never pull off or leak. I don't like vinlyn/plastic hoses Cheap all way around and get twisted and colaspe

Thanks - I didn't know that about hoses. I just did some quick reading and it seems that ones labeled "safe for drinking" are ok. I knew that adding lead to brass was common once upon a time (it makes it very machineable), but it is becomming less so now because of the potential for lead poisoning. If you have an old hose it could easily have some lead in the fittings. I used to not bother flushing out the hose before I watered things (didn't know about the lead), but last year we got notice from the city that our pipes were leaching too much lead. They detailed a number of steps we should take to minimize our intake and the biggest one was to flush any standing water from the pipes before using it. They suggested running the tap for 10 minutes in the morning - all water that had sat overnight would be removed from the pipes and the fresh stuff wouldn't have time to pick up any lead. So flushing the garden hose would make it safe for the kids to use. BP