Cedaring the Barrels, Part Two

Save the best to the last.  It's definitely a plark to put a bungie-cord belt around a big-tummied rain barrel, and then slide in its fancy new outfit.  It seems less work to create the top edge up, down and all over the place than to attempt to have it even and level.  Some constraints still apply: too great a variance in the board heights is not pleasing to the eye.

By proclamation of a passing neighbor,
"That is really pretty.  It looks beautiful!"

The remaining finish work after arranging the staves is the application of the barrel straps.  It was a month-long search last summer for the best material.  None of the lumber/big-box stores could help us with anything other than narrow plastic-type stuff used for strapping lumber.  Strong, yes, but it would deteriorate in the sunlight (why am I worried about that?).  Fastening the ends together would also be a problem.

Then one wildly adventuresome worker at our near-by lumber yard suggested galvanized steel strap.  And my engineer husband* showed me how a hose clamp could be used to fasten it round the barrel.

Hose clamp cut and positioned

Wiping my hands on the front of my aproned, carpenter-styled, bib overalls as the last strap tightened securely was the most satisfying of the Things I get to do today.  All the public barrels are now handsomely covered.


*Engineer husband has also designed an "anatomical pressure-relief valve."  To see a pink picture of it you'll have to email, and I send it to you direct.

Cedaring the Barrels, Part One

Cedaring: v., transitive.  The act or process of putting cedar "staves" around the rain barrels. Creating the look of a wooden barrel by using cedar boards that have been shaped so they will conform somewhat to the roundness of the circumference of a large plastic-material barrel.

Very public.  Not subtle.

Rain barrels are on every corner of my house.  Five of them--we have extra corners because our house is not an exact rectangle.  Previous blogs have given the reasoning behind this strange ritual of saving rain when our last nine months have provided more moisture from the sky than can possibly be absorbed by the earth.  Logic says we are saving it for a (non) rainy day.  We'll, no doubt, have two or three of them this summer when we have a strong urge to turn on the outside faucet to water something.  Rain barrels to the ready.


Purpose aside, rain barrels au natural are not pretty.  The scratch-at-your-eyes bright blue does not blend.  Not in the slightest.  Last summer's installation all around the house was followed by a fancying-up of the barrel by the back door.  I put cedar around it.  Suddenly it was handsome, attractive and good looking.

Removing "Diaper" scattered the sawdust a bit.  It was
easily 6" deep inside the metal supports.

Things I get to do today says now is the time to finish the most public barrels that remain naked blue.  One day was spent shaping the staves--3 1/8" wide and an 8.5 degree slant on the edges. (Blog of 9/20/11 "Diapers for My Table Saw," shows the dust diaper I made last fall for the table saw.)  Shaping the cedar for two barrels created a mountain of sawdust.  The diaper did an excellent job of keeping it off the rest of the workshop which is really more garage, storage, and work-out gym.

I was all ready to slap those babies around the barrel, when I remembered that they needed a coat of waterproofing.  If you ever embark on any such project, here's a tip valued to save several hours.  Use a paint pad to spread the solution.  My paint "tray" was a recycled lettuce box.  My work surface was set on a little slant so the solution stayed at one end of the tray and could be worked into the paint pad easily.

Home-made paint tray.  So easy to "clean" up.

Tune in tomorrow when the actual cedaring begins.