My Outdoor Fountain

Pinterest will be the cause of the demise of my savings account.  I find lots of projects that I want to do, think I should do, might actually have the supplies for, the list is endless.  I was looking at outdoor fountains last winter...trust me, winters in this area usually mean you're stuck indoors because of snow or frigid temperatures.  Last winter, a co-worker introduced me to Pinterest.  47 boards, 1148 pins (that's just my one account, not the one I started for this blog) later...

I have tried and completed some of my pins.  The making caramel from a can of sweetened condensed milk in a crock pot was a complete fail.  Opened it to discover it was the same as when I started. 

Back to fountains...I looked at all the cute ideas, pinned a few, including how to actually get your fountain running.  Not sure why I thought I'd actually read directions since it's a last resort for me, but it looked like something I should have.

This is my fountain.

I already had the basin.  I bought it at an auction sale and was going to plant lots of cute purple flowers in it.  I bought the flowers and they did well until it rained a few times and they drowned because there was no holes in the bottom to drain off the excess water.  I found a cheap coffee pot on eBay and ordered a solar fountain pump from Amazon (they're cheaper in February). 

I drilled two holes in the bottom of the coffee pot.  I took a lazy means to do this.  I tipped it upside down in my kitchen sink instead of going down to the basement and unloading my workshop table from everything I've piled up on it.  Enamelware is strong.  It took some muscle to forge my way through it with the drill and I did wonder if this was the project that would send me to the emergency room.  I should drill another hole in the side of the basin for the cord and seal with aquarium glue but I was too anxious to get it up and running.

I added coffee colored rocks and it works great on sunny days (solar panel).  My only nemesis is a certain robin.  I cleaned it last weekend from leaves, grass clippings, whatever had blown in and was outside reading and this little robin came along, looked at me and pooped in it.  I had to reclean the fountain and there's a certain robin that's on my enemy list...