Repling to comments about water

The watering issue with the bales has started us thinking and with a couple of other folks piping up I figured it was worth a posting.
Chance and I watched our sprinkler during the last watering. (Yes we now have several channels on our yard and garden "T.V" Watering,Chickens,Growing and the DIY channels.) Our sprinkler was wasting a lot of water. The mist is to fine and once the wind kicks up the water flies away with the wind. So we are going to try out a drip system made from a recycled garden hose.Chance has the idea to prick tiny holes into the hose to allow it to drip.With drip lines the water goes where you want, is more effective and you don't have to run the water as long.
I did receive a comment about using rain barrels. We do have a couple of smaller ones.In the past this water has been for the chickens and the old garden beds. We need to improve our rain barrel system so we get better flow making it easier to hook up a hose to them.One of our goals is to put in more barrels and make them work right. Here in the Portland area rain barrels are very popular.They utilize the many gallons of rain we get just about year round.In the past just before the rain barrel craze hit affordable barrels were easy to find.Now you have to be some place at the right moment.
My Dad first introduced us to rain catching systems.His well was going dry and the local town would not hook him up to the town water.He put in a 500 gallon under ground tank for their out door water needs.The rain ran off his HUGE barn and into the tank.During the cooler months when we get weeks on end of liquid sunshine it would only take a couple of days to fill his tank.Not once did the tank go dry. There is a whole math formula for figuring out how much water you can get per square foot of roof.It is some where close to 10 gallons per square foot. Pretty darn cool free water.Later on the town hooked him up to water after they found out about what he had already done.I think they did not like thinking about missing out on the water he could have been paying them for a water bill.He still used the tank for outdoors and the town water for the house.
I also received a comment about saving clean water from the household such as catch the water while you are waiting for it to heat up.This a thought that I should bring up with the family at dinner tonight.I think if everyone was agreeable it could easily become a habit.
I am not to worried a solution will be found.Oregon is so darn wet year round that the only month I worry about watering is August when we get some heat. The rest of the months water comes often enough straight from the sky.So if we keep our routine of letting the rain do most of the watering for the bulk of the garden beds and find a conservative way to water the bales it will work out.
Thanks everyone for the input.
Rois