How to Make a Hillbilly Fountain for Your Patio

Or, as I'm calling it, my "Pee Bucket Fountain."  I know, sounds appealing, right?!  But it's really kind of cool and lets you enjoy the sound of running water for hours at a time!

You can see why I call it my Pee Bucket Fountain!

It has rained quite a bit here lately, and we had several nice days of drizzling, off-and-on rain.  It was glorious.  When (if!) it rains here, it usually comes down with a vengence and is accompanied by 50 mph winds that blow everything around the yard like a tornado has come through.  In fact, the other day while driving home from work a storm came through with such violent wind that it felt like my vehicle was surrounded by hoodlums who were shaking the car all around.  It was like the storm was trying to carjack me.

But we had some really nice, drizzly days in there too, and it made me realize how much I've missed the sound, smell, and feel of water with this extended drought we've been in.

I started thinking that maybe it would be nice to have a small fountain on my patio so that I could at least enjoy the sound of water more often.  I looked around some on Amazon to see what they had (I LOVE Amazon!!), but I knew I was way to cheap and lazy to have something that required not only electricity but also occassional cleaning of the pump.  And I started to wonder what else I could do.  This is also how I learned to build a Redneck Air Conditioner on YouTube on a hot day in late spring.

I didn't really find what I was looking for on the fountain, so I just made something up.  I bought two galvanized metal buckets and six cinder blocks.  You'll also need a third bucket - I used the dogs' galvanized water bucket for the bottom.  The buckets cost $16 a piece at Lowe's, and the cinder blocks were $1.87 each.  I also purchased some marine epoxy for another project, and the grand total was $51 with tax, so it's darn cheap.  Just use whatever will hold water that you can drill a hole in and that will fit in with your decor.  At my house, galvanized steel buckets work just fine.

Drill a small hole in the wall of the bucket near the bottom.  I used a 3/32" drill bit for mine.  Put the buckets on the cinder blocks, fill 'em with water, and voila!

I'm pleasantly surprised at how this turned out, actually.  With the tiny holes the sound is just right, and the system will run for a full two hours before you have to maintenance it.  Which means dipping the first two buckets in the bottom one to fill them back up again!  Enjoy!