If I buy a half whiskey barrel at HD, Menard's, or Lowe's, will clear 6 mil plastic be good enough for lining it so it will hold water? I assume it won't hold water without a liner even after the wood swells up. I want to plant a lotus seedling in it. I'm too cheap to buy a commercial barrel liner. Thanks.
Bob
It'll work until it doesn't, and that moment cannot be predicted. But, since you say you're cheap, you have alternative.
Buy half-barrel. Turn it over so that the closed end is in the air. Use flat ended tool like a file to hammer hoops down tight. Set hoops in place with short nails. Turn half-barrel over, open end up. Splash interior and fill with water. Half barrel will leak. Re-fill as needed. Repeat for 4-5 days or until leaking stops. If leaks are small, insert wooden tooth pick into crack and hammer in. If leak is large, get a liner.
Good luck.
- Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)
I had a half wiskey barrel now for five years and it swells and does not leak at all. This year I have two ponds for my lotus and waterlillies so I have the wiskey barrel used for a nice container planting using phormium, variegated vinca minor, esperanza and variegated morning glories. I'll take photos when it's filled in.
Just be very chosey when you pick out the barrel half. snug up hoops and fill with water., may leak for a day or two but it will eventually stop. I have three halfs so far that hold water as good as a liner does..We put aquatic flowers in them the first year or two as the smell was a bit hard to try and remove, but now they also hold fish without a problem.
On Sat, 19 May 2007 17:33:08 -0500, zxcvbob wrote: If I buy a half whiskey barrel at HD, Menard's, or Lowe's, will clear 6 mil plastic be good enough for lining it so it will hold water? I assume it won't hold water without a liner even after the wood swells up. I want to plant a lotus seedling in it. I'm too cheap to buy a commercial barrel liner. Thanks.
Bob
------- I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!
Buy a cheap shower curtain liner at WalMart. They cost less than $4. Line barrel and cut of excess. They're heavy enough to last several years, if not longer.
Or maybe some store, like maybe Costco, that treats their staff like human beings, and doesn't throw them on the taxpayers for medical care. And does not force their suppliers to cut prices so far that they, in turn, are forced to go offshore, costing more Americans their jobs.
Frontline -- the best program on TV for my money -- a few months ago aired a thorough examination of Walmart's ripple effect on our economy.
They cost less than $4. Line
Not eveyone has acess to a Costco. Everyone has a WalMart. Yes, I agree, they're pretty bad but you can find anything there for less than anywhere else. For those of us who are retired or making a low income, they're the place to shop.
The problem is that people believe what you just said is true for everything. Here (Rochester NY), their groceries are NOT cheaper than at the two real supermarkets. True believers have a hard time with this.
I assure you Costco buys merchandise from China where they pay 20 cents an hour.
Netflix, if you belong, has a great documentary called:
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
I highly recommend it. Netflix will give a two week free trial to anyone who wants to try it.
Actually, that's the ignorance of the consumer, not the fault of Walmart prices. People are very lazy and they don't know what the relative prices for merchandise actually are.
I've gone into Macy's or Dillards at the end of a season and bought beautiful linen shirts, pants, 400 thread count sheets, etc. all very, very inexpensively. Probably less than Walmart and twice the quality. Even Kohl's is a good alternative to Walmart. I shop Walmart because it's convenient. Nothing I do will ever change anything. All of America has to rise up to put an end to Walmart and that is not about to happen any time soon.
Bob, as I mentioned in an earlier post, tightening the hoops on the barrels, while they are dry, will probably be sufficient to make the barrels water tight. Once you have the tools, it takes about 5 min. When the wood gets wet, which may take a few days, it swells and seals itself. If that doesn't work, drop me a line or you can still buy a liner from Myanmar if you want. What you don't pay at Walmart as a consumer, you pay for as a tax payer.
Think globally, buy locally.
Persephone, your hot today girl.
- Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)
Shopping Wally World for food is a crap shoot. Its not uncommn for lts of folks to place refridgerated grocery items in a cart play around the store for an hour or two and then slip it back on a shelf elsewhere and let the clerks find it, or go back and put t in the refer sectin and let John Q. Public buy it.....It is very common espeically where yu have a large influx of so called minority foks around........or old folks.and yes even middle or upper class other folks.......not saying it doe snot happen in other grocery stores but its prevalent in Wally World for sure.........
------- I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!
You are such a steaming pile. People are lucky if they have time to help their kids with their homework much less learning to count threads for material they can't afford. Poverty is built into the system so that there will be cheap labor. "The Protestant Work Ethic" was designed to suck the joy out of life and to blame the poor for their own misery. Walmart has 300%-400% turnover in their employees so that they don't have to pay benefits. Walmart was referring their staff to the local emergency rooms for health care, where, of course, they pay more than the insured. Here are people, who are willing to work and, the system games them. It is obvious that you don't even have a nodding relationship with humility or compassion. You are beneath contempt.
- Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (not this time)
I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition! ;-)
I'm going to try tightening the hoops, just like you said. I need to pick thru the barrels and make sure I buy one with a good bottom. If it still leaks after a week, I have a big roll of 6 mil plastic already; I don't need to buy a shower curtain liner from Walmart or anybody else.
Thanks, Bob
Bone up on your reading comprehension...or not.
Let's talk before you spend any money. There is more than one way to . . . uh, hold the thought. If you run into problems, give us a call.
- Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)
The closest Wal*Mart here is 300 miles away. We shop at locally-owned stores and buy our big-ticket items (TV's, winter coats, etc) used. You can live frugally without shopping at WalMart...
Jan
History is full of examples of one person doing something that changed everything.
All of
[...]Yeah, if they all think like you, right, it won't happen.
Of course they do; everything is made in China now. Partly due to the effect of squeeze artists like Walmart that force American suppliers who would LOVE to stay here and employ Americans -- to offshore just so they won't lose their contracts with Walmart.
We *were* talking about the way Costco pays and treats their employees (well!) as opposed to Walmart's philosophy. And did we mention sex discrimination and forcing employees to work extra hours without compensation, and...and...
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