Rain Barrel Non-Workshop

The beginning of the month, the local newspaper announced the city Street Department was having a workshop on how to build a rain barrel.  

It sounded really good:  "Anyone interested in building and using their own rain barrel..." and "During the workshop, the CRC will go through the process of building a rain barrel step by step. All necessary materials will be provided and each registered attendee will be able to complete a rain barrel and take it home the same day."

The 'workshop' cost $40 "per barrel which will pay for all needed materials."  It was scheduled to be one and a half hours long.

I was excited.  You see, I have FOUR barrels behind my shed and I'd like to make 3 of them into rain barrels.  So I thought $40 for a class to learn and then take home a finished rain barrel was a pretty good deal.  And since the cost was for materials, Himself and I could work together on one barrel.

Then we showed up to the site.  There were a bunch of tables set up for 4 people per table... and not a rain barrel 'kit' in sight, just 2 finished ones at the front of the room.  Hmmmmmm...  Then some guy from a governmental agency starting talking about water sheds and all sorts of things besides rain barrels. 

When he finally got to rain barrels, it was 'well, ummm, you drill here... shove in there...shouldn't leak but...and it's done!"

Excuse me??  Someone else asked, "Do you have written instructions?"

He said... (and I am serious...) "Oh, there are all sorts of instructions on the Internet you can look up."

Say what?!?!

Then he announced the completed rain barrels were out on a truck in the parking lot.  

We went out with the rest of the crowd to get our crudely made rain barrel.  They didn't even clean up the edges.  No workshop what-so-ever, not even a hand-out!  If they had even done a good demonstration that would have been worth something.

So I'm back to Square One -- look up rain barrel DIY on Pinterest.  (Except I'm out $40... )  

Here's the instructions I had collected on Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/mission_chick/6-rain-barrel/ 

I'll try making my own this fall when it is not so hot!