Today I was thinking about my overall experience with my 20% project. I met my goal of completing the project; building a water recycling device made from a rain barrel and various drip system parts, and I was able to make a DIY presentation with a link to pinterest (this can be found below). I have really enjoyed working with my mentor (my Dad) and am proud of my work. It will help my family be able to do something to reduce our water usage during this time of drought. I also learned some new skills while putting my project together; I learned how to put pvc together, how to put together drip systems, and a little bit about how our particular swamp cooler works. During this project I have also learned that it is really important when one is planning a project like mine, to measure carefully and to have a good idea of what you plan to water so you can place your system accordingly. I do wish I would have had more time allotted for this project. I feel like I could have fine-tuned my water recycling device a bit better. I would have played with different elevations for water pressures, maybe try different shapes of rain barrels to see if that made a difference in water pressure, or tried a pump in the system to pump the water out of the barrel.  I would have really liked to have had a good month after completion of my project to be able to observe and document just how much water it collects and therefore saves. I will continue with this project on my own time this summer and do just that. I plan to measure just how much water is collected per day and at the end of a month, and see just how much water would have been wasted but now has been recycled. I also think it would be a neat idea to talk to others in my community and see if I can find a few people to build a water recycling device, like the one I put together. It would be great to have them give me feedback on their experience building it using my directions and how much water they were able to recycle. A DIY brochure handed out at our local farmers market may be something that I could do to help me find people that would be willing to try my project.

     This link below is to a presentation I have put together outlining how to build a water recycling device of your own. I have tried to make it as clear and concise as possible.

DIY Brochure

      I hope my work on this project will be beneficial to others and help them be able to conserve water and recycle water that would have otherwise been wasted. It is so important that we all do our part in helping our own communities be aware of our water usage and how much water is actually wasted when it could be recycled and used to do other things, like watering a garden.