Gathering rain water... water cisterns

          I live in an area where it rains pretty regularly but there are times during the summer when we will go weeks without rain. This can cause a major issue with watering food crops, animals, and the like. The best way I can see to help with this is through water cisterns.

          I have seen many different types of cisterns; underground, barrels, above ground large cisterns. But they all do the same thing, they collect water from roofs. The rain runs off the roofs into gutters which then funnel the rain into pipes which then carry it to the cistern itself. I really do see this as a great way to gather rain water for green house and for animals.