I don't use rain barrels, mayalena, but I love your list which notes all the things I wouldn't have thought of either. I also am enthralled with the idea of the escapee drums sounding like Young Taiko Drummers.

It's encouraging that a 10-minute shower produces that much water.

Claire

I'm determined to set up at least one rain barrel soon! My parents have a big bright barrel (red & yellow plastic) that isn't being used, and as soon as I can convince my husband I can either paint it or otherwise hide it (trellis, wall?) I'll drive it to our house. The trouble is that it has no modifications or hardware, just a plain blank plastic barrel, so I'll need to do some "creative" work on it... as well as on the downspout it collects from....

Mine are from Great American Rain Barrel. Take a look at their downspout diverter: diverter

I have the plastic spigots that came with them -- but they are leaky and frustrating. Not sure what to do about it!

Keep me posted about how your thinking evolves!

My husband tried to make a rain barrel watering system for my high tunnel. The soaker hose, as pointed out by the OP, didn't work. I would add one more point, this year, rain barrels don't work very well when there's no rain. Storms keep missing us although we had plenty of rain recently when we had an outdoor party planned.

NHBabs, surprisingly we don't think anyone stayed home because of the rain. It was an outdoor loving group. The evening campfire was made judiciously under the canopy tent and people were happy that the tent trapped the heat. The kids enjoyed the water slide bouncy house for about an hour despite the chill. We couldn't run the bouncy house blowers when it rained. Fortunately, the club was paying for the bouncy houses which a member was able to get at a discount. The really surprising part was how well 4 year olds played in the lousy weather. I told one mom the kids were welcome to come indoors to watch cartoons but she said no. Her child is in daycare all week and the kids didn't seem to mind the rain.

But, yes, we still need more rain. Would hate to be a farmer right now.

I have 2 rain barrels that I use to water my vegetable gardens but with the lack of rain, I've been forced to use city water ( yuck ), most years we have enough rain to keep them full all season.