Collecting Rain

I'm fortunate to live in an area of the USA that gets a fair amount of rainfall. We've had mid-summer droughts--it's been so dry that all the vegetation has withered and died... fried to a crisp. But, mostly, we tend to get our share of rain without it being an overwhelming amount.

I've been trying to think of ways to collect rain that would help keep the water reasonably potable. I can easily put a rain barrel under a downspout for watering the garden and such, but what about drinking water? A typical rain barrel set-up presents two problems for drinking: The rain water runs through unsanitary gutters first, and the barrel usually has a large enough opening to allow the collection of leaves, bird poo, etc.

I guess, if shit+fan happens, then I'll probably just have to put barrels in the middle of the yard when it rains and hope for the best. It would certainly be just as clean (if not cleaner) as the sludge in our local creek.

I wish I could get Hubby on board about saving water. But he just refuses to store something that, as he says, "falls out of the sky." I've tried to explain that the zombie hordes might prevent us from reaching the nearby spring or creek, but he doesn't seem to see that as a possibility...