PROJECTS - Building a Rainchain - FREEBIE

I have always been interested in rainchains and wondered how they would work here in the northeast where we get some substantial downfalls. Well, I finally made one. As I discovered, there are many, many ways to do this ... only limited by your imagination. In my case I purchased some cute little blue pails from the local Dollar Store and some plastic chain from my hardware store. Everything else was scrounged or recycled materials. I just remove the handle from the pails and CAREFULLY drill a one inch hole in the bottom, passed the chain through to the calculated link and crimp ther handle back in place. I repeated this until I had the length I needed and voila … my rainchain.

I was curious to see how it would work of course, but fortunately there was no rush because I must have chased the rains .. nothing happened for many days. But then on September 29, 2012 the rain finally came down. The rainchain worked great, but the water just went into a big pail that overflowed allowing the water to go where we didn’t want it to go!

So ... I found a 2.5 gal plastic pail that once held drywall compound, drilled holes in the bottom and top with a big hole to accommodate a scrap plastic “pipe” that went to the bottom of the pail. I put some window screen over the top of the pail top so dirt wouldn’t drain into the pail and covered it all with soil … except the “pipe” opening of course. Now the rain drains down the chain, into the pipe and collects in the underground pail where it soaks into the earth. Now it doesn’t flow along the ground to the house entrance like it did before …VICTORY!!

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