We’ve been considering putting in rain barrels to store our roof runoff for future use such as watering (for the very ambitious, that’s not us, toilet flushing). The irony is that in the season when our barrels are filled and overflowing, nothing will need the extra water. But this seems to be a noble cause and there are many resources to help. Rain barrels come in the full range of fancy to just plain practical models. You can even get real whisky barrels. And there’s the do-it-yourself approach. Locally, King County’s AtWork! non-profit which helps people with disabilities sells rain barrels as one of its projects. And Seattle Public Utilities customers can purchase a discounted rain barrel from the Seattle Conservation Corps. As with all home improvement projects you can get embroiled in endless details and decisions if you so choose. Do we add an overflow bucket or a fancier downspout attachment that can divert to the downspout? And wouldn’t a rain chain be pretty (pretty expensive)?