Raining in a New Era

The Dirty Rascal Junior Master Gardeners met this evening to talk about something very important...living green.  Specifically they wanted to work on water conservation.  The group met at the 4-H office and club volunteer Kerrie Roach brainstormed ways with them that they could conserve water.  Ideas ranged from turning off the faucet while you brush your teeth to not running sprinklers in the rain.
After learning about water conservation they group learned how rain barrels work.  The ones they are decorating are recycled 55 gallon drums donated by Unilever.  The barrels were cleaned out and being re purposed to use at home.  As the club members learned last night they barrels are positioned under a down spout and rain water is collected in them.  A spicket near the front base allows the user to access the water to water their plants or lawn.  The club members were very excited about decorating the barrels to jazz them up.  Two of the barrels are being donated to the planetarium while the other two will be sold to raise money for the club. 
Immediately the teams got to work.  They split up into twos to work on their projects.  Each team drew for the color barrel they would be designing on (they were spray painted a base coast of red, green, black, and blue).  Each group mapped out a theme for their barrel and then worked together on the design. After drawing out some ideas on paper it was time for paint.  The youth spent a great deal of time thinking of their theme and how to paint it.  they worked together to get them done so that Mrs. Kerrie can put a clear varnish on them to protect them.
The youth plan to donate two of the barrels to the planetarium and two will be sold as part of their annual fundraiser in April with the Master Gardener plant sale.