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I’ve never been one to require a sophisticated mode of entertainment in my life. Rather, I tended to subscribe to a more simple avenue of entertainment that required very little in the way of complication.

Case in point. While I should have been studying studiously in my elementary classes, I was caught entirely too often using a pair of pencils in tandem to form an imaginary aircraft that battled over the skies of my desk for aerial supremacy.

It was much to the chagrin of whatever teacher who happened to be at the head of the class. Whether it be Mrs. Strand or Mrs. York, both would relate historical documentation  of such hard fought battles to my mom, who no doubt was proud and impressed.

I was a “curious” little boy. Still am in some ways.

Not long ago I was content to keep a boxelder bug in my office, which I had rescued from a spider web, breaking up the monotony of what I was doing to let it crawl around on my fingers for the two days it had remaining of its lifespan.

It was oddly relaxing if I’m being honest.

This whole idea of being entertained easily, reached another monumental moment in my life when I got to use my new rain barrel for the first time since acquiring it from Mower County Recycling’s sale earlier this spring.

I’ve wanted a rain barrel for quite awhile, but either forgot about my opportunity through the county or failed to find one out in the wild. It seemed logical that if I were going to have a garden, I should probably have a rain barrel to help mitigate how often I was using the faucet connected to the house.

In April, I was finally able to pick up my rain barrel and dutifully set up under an eave spout, shoring off the end of said spout so I could fit the barrel beneath. It was glorious for a plastic variation for a barrel and when the first promise of rain touched on the horizon, I was excited.

Yep, excited to collect water in a barrel.

Granted the first rain didn’t turn out to be much and about all I could gather really was roughly about two inches of water, meaning the volume of the barrel wasn’t enough to push the water out of the hose.

Oh, I tried, tilting the watering bucket on its side and tipping the barrel forward while attempting not to dump it’s contents on me as well as, I suspect, giving the neighbors something interesting to watch.

Of course, this was followed by absolutely nothing. No rain of any kind for days. Not even a hint on the forecast or in the sky.

Oh sure, we had some near misses, leaving me staring to the north or south and angrily judging the communities in those areas who were getting to fill their rain barrels. So fancy. They think they’re sooooo great!

Despite my will, the rain refused to come and my lawn became more brittle, sounding more like I was walking on matchsticks each time I ventured in the lawn. Meanwhile, I baselessly demeaned the plants I had put in the Earth by giving them tap water rather than all natural water.

I’m still not sure they have forgiven me, but they are growing so I guess not even plants can stay mad forever.

Finally! I looked at the forecast one weekend day and saw that the beginning of the following week would be a drencher. Inches rather than cried tears of sad clouds and when it came, it came.

It didn’t take too long for the barrel to fill up to capacity and then some, forcing the overflow through the outlet hose that is a lot neater than it probably should be.

Of course, this all led to my next problem, which was getting to use the water I had collected. The rain went on for several days in one fashion or another and provided enough of a soak that I didn’t need to use the water in my rain barrel.

Ain’t that just a kick in the pants?

Still, I finally was able to use it fairly recently when some of our flowers and plants in planters needed to be topped off and if I told you I had been looking forward to this for the last half of last week would you at all be that surprised?

Probably not, but I was. There was just something satisfying to drain the water into the watering pail and not have to use a hose and faucet. It was something of a full circle type of moment that made me entirely too happy for such a small thing.

Next week I’ll tell you about my new hoe. Won’t that be exciting?