More About Rain Barrels

I can't even remember now why I decided that the rain barrels needed to be moved because it's a helluva lot of work.  But I'm committed now.  The first step was to get guttering attached to the garage to run the water into the primary barrel.  That took long enough because everything is harder than a random guy on YouTube makes it look:

We haven't had any serious rain since I put this up so I don't know how well the gutter is going to drain water into that first barrel but I will soon find out as we are expecting a MASSIVE rain storm tonight (in fact as I type this massive dark gray clouds are quickly rolling in) which is predicted to continue through tomorrow. (Or so weather.com claims, but they are about as reliable as a 1910 Farmer's Almanac since the US federal government stopped paying its annual dues to the weather satellite system.) I spray painted primer on Barrel 1 and it was a miserable task: the paint smells terrible and gives me headaches and it takes forever and the coverage is patchy.  And it's boring work, too.  I also primed Barrel #2 and tried out the yellow enamel paint on the top to see how it looks:

I don't like the yellow--too shrill and too shiny. And the enamel paint smells worse than the primer. So I'm going to have to go to Home Depot AGAIN (I feel like I live there these days) to get a can of primer and a can of yellow outdoor paint and do this all over again using roller brushes. It won't smell, the color will be better, and I don't care if the roller brush leaves orange peel dimpling in the paint as it's going to end up being covered with leaf and raspberry debris anyway.  Meanwhile, these barrels are waiting in the wings:

This morning I disconnected the hoses, removed the spigots and moved the cinder blocks over to their new home next to the garage. (And I twinged my back and worked through the pain and now feel fine--there's a lesson in that for those who can pay attention.) Once this latest climate change induced mega storm spends itself, I'll paint these damned barrels and set them up. THEN I can finally move my raised bed containers into position and THEN I can finally plant the things up. If I get a vine ripened tomato before winter sets in, I'll be amazed.