Ok, I made a backyard fountain. As I have mentioned before, YouTube’s algorithm has been serving up gardening or homesteading videos recently. Including videos on making backyard fountains.
I have long had fantasies of putting a water feature in my backyard. My backyard is sloped so I thought I could have a little water fall and maybe even put water plants in it. But, there have always been higher priority things to do with the house, and now that I plan to sell and move in a couple years, I’m not going to do it. But I still want a water feature, so the YouTube videos intrigued me.
Most of the ones I have seen are very elaborate. They have multiple tiers and rocks and plants. Another, smaller subset is very simple. They put a floating solar panel/pump in a bird bath along with some rocks and call it good. My sister has one like that. I decided to do something in the middle*.
Materials I used:
I bought a solar powered pump (not floating) from Amazon. I got a small hanging pot and a sturdy plant saucer to put on the top of it from Lowe’s and some tubing from the pet store. Some pumps come with tubing, but this one didn’t, so I had to buy tubing (and it didn’t fit all that well.) I used to have a bowl of black and white rocks on my coffee table. The cat used to kick them out of the bowl onto the floor, so I got rid of it. But I still have the rocks and thought they would look nice as part of my fountain. The cat in question is pictured and is optional for making the fountain. In fact, making the fountain would likely be easier without his “help”. Not pictured – duct tape.
What I did:
The hanging pot has holes around the edge. I can’t fit the cord for the pump through them, so I cut into the pot. This gives me a space for the cord to exit the pot. Next, I drilled holes in the plant saucer. I need a hole for the water to leave the basin and more holes for the water to return to the basin. I threaded the tubing from the pump to the central hole in the saucer. This was a problem because the tubing was coiled and didn’t want to be straight. I had to secure it with duct tape or it would spray all over the place. If I do this again, I would use a hair dryer or something to warm the tubing and straighten it out. Then I put the saucer on top and piled rocks on top. It looked a little plain so I added some pink sea glass that I had.
It works well as long as the sun is strong. The pump has no batteries, so how strongly it pumps depends on how bright the sun is and how directly it hits the panel. When a cloud passes, the strength of the pump decreases noticeably or it …spurts. It doesn’t really burble, though. But it is low maintenance and scratches my itch for a little water feature in the backyard.
That’s all it took. I spent about $35 on the materials and I now have a water feature that is portable and can be disassembled and the parts easily repurposed. I think that I will definitely make a more elaborate one with multiple tiers that actually burbles soon.
Nice work
I was going to say nice pussy.
Very nifty. I’ve been watching some similar home projects over my coworkers shoulders at work the last few weeks.
First “next” project is a 2nd tree for the backyard – after that…may remove one planter and try planting some watermelons/pumpkins to soak up yard water….
Not pictured – duct tape.
That was a lol.
Nice job, Tulip!
I was lucky enough to have a neighbor who built a lovely waterfall on the berm behind our houses. One of the things I miss most about my old house.
Until the government declares it a wetland.
They are Laotian. I pity the government.
I didn’t know you lived in Arlen, Texas.
Posting seems really slow. Anything happen while I was stuck on 64 driving home from Norfolk?
Hadn’t seen anything here yet the last few days, but has anyone seen the hilarious AI Dall-E meme generator? I’ve seen a ton of great ones on twitter, but couldn’t find the actual site until this week (not sure why a general search was so hard)….
https://huggingface.co/spaces/dalle-mini/dalle-mini
Been a little laggy for me so far – pretty popular site – but there are some great ones linked here too: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/making-the-internet-fun-again/
but has anyone seen the hilarious AI Dall-E meme generator
I made Warty Hugeman
It got us about right.
The humans come out with disturbing deformities.
harrumph, not a monocle in sight. That I say is not even close.
Nailed it.
“too much traffic”
It usually take three or five attempts but you don’t have to refresh so it’s doesn’t take that long to get one through, just keep hitting “run” until it takes.
Ah, got it. Hm… my name returns a bunch of deformed-looking European villages with a green mountain in the background.
I haven’t done the big WordPress update yet, and it is a substantial update, so I’m trying to get everything else sorted first.
Also, that’s why avatars are weird. The plugin that runs them requires the newer WordPress. It’ll hopefully be sorted out Sunday night.
“While the capabilities of image generation models are impressive, they may also reinforce or exacerbate societal biases. While the extent and nature of the biases of the DALL·E mini model have yet to be fully documented, given the fact that the model was trained on unfiltered data from the Internet, it may generate images that contain stereotypes against minority groups. Work to analyze the nature and extent of these limitations is ongoing, and will be documented in more detail in the DALL·E mini model card.”
Gay.
Oh, brother. 🙄
Translation: We’re still poring through the email complaints.
Apparently, the birds in my backyard like the fountain. I was too slow to get a picture tonight.
I was going to ask if it increased the avian fun.
How often do you have to add water to the fountain? Any algae issues yet?
It depends on if it is spraying around or not. I have refilled it about daily. No algae issues yet.
That was going to be my question. Do you have to refill often? Does it develop an algae bloom and turn the rocks green? Looks nice.
I have a couple buckets of rain water on the patio, they’re looking disgusting from the dirt and bugs but the plants don’t seem to know the. difference.
I saw 3 apples on some nursery trees I planted a couple years ago. I wasn’t able to do much in the garden this year, after I got the tomatoes, peppers and cabbage plants in I was out of action for a couple weeks. Those are growing well. I planted 9 more apple trees that I started from seed, those from last year really took off this year. I gave away about 25 baby apple trees and have about 10 more to give away.
How loud is it?
not very. I would like it to burble more – i.e. be louder.
The cat in question is pictured and is optional for making the fountain. In fact, making the fountain would likely be easier without his “help”. Not pictured – duct tape.
Cats are excellent project supervisors. Do not duct tape them.
Must be a good zoom, with so few comments here.
Zoom?
I just woke up.
Don’t blame me, I’m on vacation.
It was like that when I got there.
It was. I left when they were breaking out the cake and balloons. Elon was telling jokes and sharing brownie recipes.
So. next step is add some batteries to charge in the day and power the fountain and some lights at night. Fountain lights at night are the bomb. Also, if you want a stronger fountain flow, use a rubber cork with a hole in it. I had to buy a pound of the stupid things to up my fountain flow, so let me know in the forum if you want a selection of corks. Fountains are awesome!
I like the way you adapted there Tulip.
I have a couple of water features. In the front yard I have two large pots full of water and water plants. To keep control of mosquitos and algae I added mosquito fish to each and they keep the water good. (The fish were inexpensive and may help others as well. They like to hang out near the plants and are hard for birds to get.)
In the backyard I have a pool and purchased some concrete fish with fountain mouths. To add water I replaced the nearby sprinkler head with a hose adaptor. I then purchased a pair of split adaptors. The hose comes from the sprinkler head and splits. I then Steve Smithed the fish at the appropriate points. Now when the sprinklers come on the fish add water to the pool. Not enough to make a difference in filling the pool, but they sound and look nice.
now that sounds nice!
Obligatory.
Who pays that cat’s bar tab?
The purrprietor?
They are feline generous I guess.
LOL that nails cats
I wonder who took the cat in.
That’s an awesome idea. Imma try it.
I think it would be lovely to have a little fountain in Tranquility Base, but my more immediate concern is how the heck to keep the ants out of my hummingbird feeder. I may have to hang it from the porch roof’s frame with fishing line…but I bet ants can walk along fishing line, too.
Ants are becoming the bane of my existence. 😒
The good news is that I just managed to climb up and water my hanging fuchsia plant without falling on my butt, so….yay me?
Forgot to drain the water section of our coffee-maker a couple of years back. Came home after about 2 months and a full-fledged ant colony had taken up residence.
🤢
Put the forty mule team to work. Ants hate borax.
In stock at my local Ace Hardware! 👍🏼
Get a pool of water between them and the good stuff.
Not in stock at my local Ace Hardware, but it IS at my local Lowe’s! 👍🏼 Thanks, Mike & GL!
Could I just say a prayer and strike the ground with my staff to create a spring? Sounds like less maintenance.
Maybe up through the ground will come a-bubblin’ crude!
Even better – although the Biden Administration would probably not allow me to drill it.
John Cornyn getting a warm Texas welcome.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/watch/video-of-john-cornyn-being-booed-at-gop-convention/vi-AAYB9Mp
“I will not support any new restrictions on law abiding gun owners.”
Fucking weasel mouth sellout. GFY.
He’s one of my senators. I don’t often contact politicians, but I was certain to send him an e-mail on where my vote stands next election.
I’m sitting around, randomly watching what youtube pukes up, and the SpaceX launch appears. Sure, why not? Except instead of going over the pre launch checklist, or the countdown, the annoying little jackass who is our host starts gushing about pride week. Guess what, you obnoxious little dweeb, I couldn’t give a fuck less about pride week.
I hope he’s one of the people Elon shitcanned.
It’s Pride month, bigot.
Ah, that’s right- it used to just be a day or week, right?
“Guess what, you obnoxious little dweeb, I couldn’t give a fuck less about pride week.”
I have the same reaction to things like this. All I want to do is listen to classical music, instead I have to be regaled with stuff about juneteenth and how they’re going to play all this stuff from black composers. Guys, I don’t want to hear anything from anyone post 1900, if that means I never hear a black composer’s work, that is a-okay.
I remember the more innocent days when they tried to trick people into supporting “Pride” with Wear Jeans Day.
Then it became “Mom” jeans day and then later “Skinny” jeans day. The world has gone mad! Mad I tell you!
I built a nice pond in the entry way of our previous house. I miss it – especially the burbling waterfall. For the zen and to keep the mosquitos down we bought a dozen “feeder” goldfish from the pet store. After 35 years there are still two left – maybe a foot long. We keep them in a galvanized stock tank. With a plugin fountain – it burbbles. Moved them across the country in the tank in the bed of the pickup. In the winter we put a stock tank heater in to keep the water from freezing. Although one year I didn’t check up on them and a circuit brakes popped and the water froze solid. I fixed the brakes, the water thawed and the fish were fine. Nature is amazing.
Are your fish named Mrs. Paul and Gorton?
Never freeze your sushi!
It was cold Jerry!
Regarding fountains, adding another level will greatly increase the volume. I would also say that water hitting water makes more noise, particularly a more restful noise than water hitting stone.
I made a very simple fountain (2 levels) with plantings and fish in the main base when I was 15 or so. I like the idea of a solar powered pump.
Sounds very cool
Neat stuff, Tulip.
Whoah. New arrows? 😲
Not quite right formatting on a Fire tablet though.
Makes a confused old guy’s life more confusing
https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/colbert-show-crew-arrested-charged-with-unlawful-entry-at-capitol/
Insurrection!
Pffftttt… if they charge them I’ll eat my shorts.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/06/17/australia-Guinness-World-Records-most-push-ups-one-hour/3701655496499/
Majorly glibfit.
https://richmond.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/someone-slashed-54-tires-on-midlothian-turnpike-police-say-why/article_de4987f7-b2ee-5ec1-b019-0bdb74834cc2.html
CWAA.
$100 per tire? Maybe ten years ago.
Shitty economy tires?
Yeah, I did two tires very recently ~$500. Just under I think.
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/vf2l5m/timelapse_of_europa_and_lo_orbiting_jupiter/
Space gif.
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Tourney note- I f’ed up the seeding last night, a corrected bracket is now up.
I will accept being moved away from the 2nd seed challenge.
Not at all suprising.
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Thank Dog I get a bye the first round — missed two 50/50’s.
https://nypost.com/2022/06/17/san-diego-zoo-welcomes-first-aardvark-birth-in-almost-40-years/
Related: https://youtu.be/VFdAKt1Jc30
Good morning, Sean, Ted’S, Teh Hype, Tulip, Scruffy, 4(20), and (if you’re still around) Lack!
It is SIGNIFICANTLY and DELIGHTFULLY cooler at Tranquility Base this morning! A lovely breeze is spinning the Brave Little Whirligig straight ahead of me near the back of the yard. The sun is being filtered through the trees to my left, birdies are singing, and so far (knock wood!) no one has fired up their lawn mowers or other power tools! 😊
😎
(File footage of the Brave Little Whirligig)
Same here. Yesterday was fugly.
Wonderful! I hope you’re able to enjoy the improvement to the fullest!
heh…I went to the wrong thread
suh’ fam
whats goody yo
Good morning, homey! See TB status report above. (Warning: BLW footage may induce motion sickness.)
Black Lives Water?
Or a seizure.
sup’ pimp-juice