About six months ago I changed to a water-meter; I am waiting for my first bill. Recently a saw an offer of a free Water Butt in the local Sovereign Association News letter. I phone them up and they fixed it today. So now I can water my garden free of charge. As this water is clean – rain water - can I use it for giving my dog a drink? I don’t mean all the time, just when she is outside.

Also; is there any other uses I can use this water butt for?

I really don't know, maybe you could sterilise the rain water :unsure:

I have quite a few water butts and I buy the cheapest pop sox and place one over the end of the pipe that goes into the butt, tying it on with garden string to stop it dropping into the water. This stops any leaves or pine needles getting into the water and making it foul. I find the sox need changing every couple of months, but we have quite a few trees, so you may not need to do it so often. Watch out for small mammals or baby birds getting in around the lid though - they drown and sink and stink for months! Puke The water can also be tainted if it is in direct sunlight. I find I need to give the waterbutts a good scrub out every couple of years to keep them sweet.

It is great how quickly the water builds up, I never seem to have enough! I'm looking to get another couple of butts when I get the greenhouse finished. I'm also working on a small pump that will fit all the butt taps, so I can use my hosepipe from them.

The rain water in the butt should be fine for your dog, junius, but the best check is to pour some into a glass, look at it and give it a sniff! It is amazing how clear and sweet it is - cleaner than a dog might find in puddles.

There you go, sound advice!

I know that some dogs would rather drink rain water than tap water given the choice.

Mine will drink anything. Their big favorite: my bath water. They love me THAT much! :lol:

Thanks Mysty and Fwenchie,

You slightly lost me on the sock thing as it is all enclosed... however, I might take a picture of it tomorrow and show you in more detail. As for the other advice; thanks.

I was about to say that I was looking forward to seeing your butt - but it's probably not appropriate :D

The water must get into the butt from somewhere ju-ju and you will need to make sure that no detritus can get in with it, using some sort of filter. My tubs are fed from the guttering downpipes on the garage and shed, so I just tie the pop sox over theend to catch the rubbish as it saves me going up a ladder to the gutters. I'm not good at ladders :unsure:

I would like to put some kind of diverter valve on the downpipe from the bathroom, so that I can use bath and sink water for the grass and trees, but need to research this further as I have read that you can filter this 'un-potable' water through gravel and certain plants and make it pure enough for food plants also. Wouls probably need some sort of pump too - yet another 'ten-minute' retirement project, methinks! :lol:

Oh, ju-ju, by the way, rain water in usually more acidic than tap water and is excellent for house plants, especially orchids, who's root fibres get all clagged up with the chemicals in tap water.
Rain water is also good for cleaning wax. Obviously I deal alot with my beeswax, but, being a scot and general tight-wadge, I also save all the ends of old candles and tea lights. I put them in an old saucepan with some rain water and heat very gently until the wax has melted, then set it some where to cool. The wax floats to the top and most of the bits of wick and dirt fall to the bottom of the pan, so you are left with a fairly clean 'biscuit' of wax that you then melt in a double boiler and make new candles from. Tap water tends to leave chemicals in the wax that make it smoke, spit and burn unevenly.
Rain water is also preferable to tap water for any number of handycrafts, such as dying fabric, with natural or man made dyes, as it fixes the colours better and batik etc etc. It could save you quite the small fortune if you do any of these crafts - especially with your water meter. In fact, almost anything that uses alot of water, like washing your bike - or the dog!

Thanks Mysty for that....

Loving your butt Junius :rolleyes: