Second rain barrel, a fraction of the labor. And a surprise.

I set out last night, rather late in the day, to put together the second rain barrel. This one is in a different location and will have different duties, but I have lessons and advice from the first one and felt pretty good about my ability to do it more efficiently this time. The most significant difference to this set-up sequence was the upgrade from Anna-powered hack saw to the electricity-powered reciprocating saw, also known as a Sawzall.

Now, I've always been a tomboy and a do-it-myself-er (dissecting any animal, vegetable, mineral, or piece of technology I could get my hands on as a child), so if you've never used a power saw I suggest you get some help with this project. Be sure to use a blade for metal and not for wood.

See reciprocating saw here:

I had that downspout cut in no time! I neglected to mention with the first rain barrel that cutting the downspout with a hack saw took most of the labor time. In fact, it took most of my morning. Using the reciprocating saw took the cutting time down from hours to seconds. (Perhaps my next task should be to become a super hero, or to figure out how to power a reciprocating saw using a bicycle.)

With the new downspout came a new lesson: Be sure to check what is holding up your downspout before you cut it.
Both of my downspouts are connected to the house in three places: at the top, connected to the gutter and in two places it is held near the wall with a metal arm that reaches around it. The downspout is made up of a few pieces, some straight, some that curve to bring the downspout under the eave and close to the house.

With the first rain barrel on the north side, I got lucky. All the pieces of the downspout were securely held together so that when I cut the downspout and removed the bottom connection, the downspout still held together. When I cut the downspout on the south side of the house, the downspout swung away from the wall, pivoting at the top holding arm, and separated at the elbow from the top piece of downspout. I apologize for not having any pictures of this but I was a bit preoccupied at the time trying to keep a lot of metal from falling on top of me.

I'm typically 'afraid' of heights, but here's what I did:
I got up on this 'very tall ladder' (as Christopher Robin might say) and put it back together by hand. I secured it additionally with some tape, which seems to be working just fine.

Funny I should mention a robin. With the vigorous cutting of the reciprocating saw, the robin's nest that has been atop my downspout for as long as I've lived here was caused to fall to the ground. I scored a few broken and empty blue robin eggs and a very cool nest. Looking at it, I'm saddened to think how much effort went into making it and how much work it will be for the robin to make a new one. The nest is top heavy from the mud that lines the interior.

In the image below, you can see the shape of the nest made to fit this particular site. The circular hole is the bottom where the nest rested on top of the elbow of the downspout, the flat side was against the wall of the house. What you cannot see in this image are the sides that had hugged the curve of the downspout. A very impressive architectural piece.