Water-clogged

It has been raining all day today. I have been away from the house working on two other job sites on the north side, so I approached the rain barrel this evening with some anticipation. Would it be empty, would it be overflowing? Before I left this morning I opened the spigot attached to the soaker hose so that the barrel could slowly drain but I didn't have a plan for overflow. I wanted to test drainage through the soaker hose.

I put my hand on the top of the lid and gave it a nudge. It was heavy. Absolutely full. What had happened? I have checked all the other nozzles and the other end of the hose. I'm not sure what happened but my first job will be to check if there is silt clogging the system somewhere. The other thought is that the hose might just drain slower than I expected.

My Chicago-issue rain barrel came with a cap on each spigot and I had left them on to test the system. From now on, I will leave the top overflow spigot open. I did have the forethought to place that spigot over the drain tile entrance so any overflow would enter the secondary system.