When Wendi Lindsay was planning her green products store, B. Lime, in Champaign, she knew she wanted to sell rain barrels.

But since B. Lime is an earth-friendly store and she wanted to keep the carbon footprint low, the last thing she wanted to do was order rain barrels from a distant place like Canada, she said.

Then one Saturday she ran into Austin and Sarah Grammer at Urbana's Market at the Square, "and I said, 'I need your rain barrels at my store,'" Lindsay said.

While Lindsay was planning her new store, the Farmer City couple was breaking into the business of building rain barrels.

"We're both ecologically minded people. We shop locally. We're passionate about environmental issues. It's really exciting to be able to get into something you're passionate about," Sarah Grammer said.

Living in the country, the Grammers share a well with neighbors. And being avid gardeners, they use quite a bit of water during the growing season.

They didn't want to be water hogs.

Around this time last year, Sarah read in her organic gardening books and magazines that rain barrels are one way to conserve water. But at about $100 a barrel and shipping costing another $100, they decided to build one instead of buying one.

Friends started calling, and soon the Grammers were selling the barrels at the farmers' market. By midseason, half of their business was from repeat customers wanting another barrel or three.

One thousand rain barrels later, they have incorporated as Prairie Rain Harvester and they are building barrels in a warehouse north of downtown Farmer City. The barrels are now sold in retail outlets like B. Lime in Champaign and the Ecology Action Center in Bloomington. They are also for sale through the Champaign County and Vermilion County Soil & Water Conservation Districts and Prairie Rivers Network in Champaign.

Lindsay now sells about three rain barrels a day.

Rain barrels are not exactly a new concept. A century ago, rain barrels or cisterns could often be found near urban and rural homes. Part of the renewed interest could be because of an increased environmental ethic, people realizing that water is a valuable resource, said Stacy James, water resources scientist with Prairie Rivers Network in Champaign. And it could be from a growing concern about flooding problems. As communities build up, more flooding issues can surface, she said.

"Rain barrels are a great way to capture and use rainwater for your own benefit," James said.

As runoff water travels from the street to the stream, it picks up trash, animal waste, oil, pesticides and other pollutants. All that goes into the streams, James said. As a result, the stream is not as clean as it should be and that negatively affects fish and wildlife in the stream.

Consider this: A 1-inch rain on a 1,000-square-foot roof produces about 625 gallons of water. That means a 1-inch rain can fill 11 rain barrels, said Austin Grammer.

In addition to the benefits of reducing storm water runoff, using a rain barrel can reduce your dependence on municipal water supply, Grammer said.

Instead of using the municipal water to water your plants, "you are able to get naturally softened rainwater that falls off your roof," he said.

For their rain barrels, the Grammers use 55-gallon plastic barrels from central Illinois food manufacturers. The barrels, which weigh about 25 pounds when they're empty, used to hold canola oil. The rain barrels come with a downspout adaptor, a threaded spigot or faucet and rubber gasket, and a debris or mosquito screen.

The barrels also come with a 6-foot-long overflow hose so when the barrel fills up during a heavy rain, the overflow can be directed to your lawn or elsewhere. It's also a closed-top barrel, meaning your curious neighborhood cat or child won't be able to unscrew the lid and climb inside.

Grammer recommends people elevate the barrel (onto concrete blocks, for example) so you can fit your favorite watering can underneath it. You also want to make sure the barrel is steady. It will weigh 400 pounds when full of water, Grammer said.

Installation takes about an hour, he said.

The barrels come in a bright blue color, but you can paint the barrels with kids' craft paint, acrylic paint or Krylon Fusion spray paint for plastic, he said.

Turns out making rain barrels can be a pretty good gig for couples.

Like the Grammers, Michael and Stephanie Hawotte started by building rain barrels for their own use.

"We're big gardeners," said Michael Hawotte. He and Stephanie are going on their second year of building rain barrels. They run Midwest Rain Catchers in Hampshire, a small town between Rockford and Elgin.

After their local newspaper wrote an article about their venture, "people started calling, from local municipalities to gardeners," Hawotte said. "It was a natural growth," he said of how the business has expanded in the last two years. The Hawottes have recently been contacted by a local government interested in purchasing several barrels for their municipal buildings.

But the Hawottes are not so much motivated by profit as they are motivated to promote conservation, Hawotte said.

"We're of the belief that we just want people to do it. We don't care if they buy from us or, if they want to build one themselves, we'll tell them how to do it," Hawotte said.

While the Hawottes make barrels part time (Michael is retired; Stephanie is a therapist), the Grammers have decided to devote themselves full time to the business. Austin Grammer, who previously worked in sales, said with the recent birth of their daughter, Lena, he is happy to be traveling on the road less.

Their goal, they said, is to keep the world green and clean for generations to come and "she's our motivation," Sarah said about Lena.

Water for thought

1 inch of rain on a 1,000-square-foot roof = 625 gallons of rainwater.

That will fill more than 11 rain barrels.

1 inch of rain on the roof of the University of Illinois Assembly Hall = 132,732 gallons of rainwater.

That's more than 2,400 rain barrels.

Information from Austin Grammer, Prairie Rain Harvester