This week started what most people knowledgeable about the weather think is going to be a long spat of rain! I almost wish I hadn't wasted all the water planting everything last summer, but this rain will pretty much assure that everything is going to take successfully without any water this year! I sat outside for a while the other day during the heaviest rain and just watched the rain gutter work. It never got more full than in this picture, even with a good gallon a minute(atleast) pouring out of the gutter that you can see at the top of this picture. I am wondering how long it will take for it to silt up. My guess is several years at least, but for now it's working like a charm and we are making use of so much water that would otherwise collect where it isn't needed.
I also made a make-shift rain catchment with a 35 gallon garbage can on wheels on a down spout in the backyard that I have emptied twice in 4 days! The other down spout in the backward was easily redirected to the base of our orange tree, which is probably really loving the water right now.
This is a low tech solution to things like water shortages, and run-off issues that everyone can do. It's super fun to problem solve, and ultimately it saves money, water, and our wetlands(run-off issues).

I salvage "waste" building materials and build home furniture and crafts, such as this picture frame, out of it. One of the beauties of the craft is in saving perfectly good materials from the landfill where it would become the next generation's problem. On a walk today, I saw this scene(picture) at a new development in our neighborhood. The typical building process is so wasteful, it makes my heart heavy to think about. At large scale "cookie-cutter" development, there is no room for mindfulness of resources. Waste is just factored into the cost of business. Whats worse is that new construction uses such crappy materials that not much of it is even worth salvaging. Most of my salvage comes from remodels and rebuilds. In these cases they are removing good, sturdy older wood and replacing it with laminates(particle board), flimsy aluminum and plastics.
This craft is one of symbolic beauty more than anything, and it is very satisfying. It is tough to want to build ones livelihood from it since it would be necessary that our building practices stay the same, not to mention it is logistically tough. Financially it wouldn't necessarily be impossible if one found their niche among the population that could afford to purchase it. But again, this would also assume the status quo in building would remain, else you'd be out of a job.