Old Pump Music

I remember as a little girl I always had a fascination with water pumps. It was so neat how you could pump that handle and cool, soothing water would come gushing out. I can still hear the squeak of my grandparents pump handle as we would pump it up and down and how the taste of that fresh water was well worth the effort it took to get it. To me it was much more intriguing than a faucet that brought forth water with a twist of a knob.

We’ve had one of those old pumps around here and I always thought someday I want to make a fountain out of it. I removed it from the shrub and gave it a fresh coat of paint.

I am almost obsessed with the sound of trickling water and love old things so I thought I’ll see if I can combine the two and add some character to our porch. I got this water pump at Ormes Hardware. I think the price was $10.46. I got it for free with coupons that I had saved up…

 

I got this old barrel from someone that wanted it out of the way… ( love people like that!) I cut it in half. The wood was so hard and dried up that I had to alternate saws because my blades kept getting hot and would smoke! (I kept a bucket of water nearby, just in case…hope John doesn’t hear about this!!)

Next, I dug out some pieces of pond liner that I had left over from my water gardens and cleaned them.

I put the liner in the barrel and filled it with water before cutting off the excess.

I stapled the liner along the outside edge…

I had to come up with something to cover up the staples so I remembered there was an old rusty iron band that also held a wooden barrel together lying behind the shop so thankfully that fit pretty good…

So far not a penny spent!!

 

I had to screw a little piece of wood on the top edge of the barrel for the pump to sit on. A piece of timber worked to support the back part of the pump. I needed a few pipe fittings that I got out of my brother-in-laws shop. Thankfully the barrel had a hole in it already so I didn’t need to drill one through the hard wood.

I don’t really follow rules when it comes to plumbing work- I just kind of guess. Sometimes I glue and sometimes not. Here I did glue the hose onto the fitting because I was afraid it would slip off.

Now, after adding some plants that I had around here and dividing my water lily from my other pond-here’s how it turned out…

 

The only thing I want to add yet is a few fish for the boys to enjoy.

Finally, I have the soothing music of trickling water on the porch to sit down and listen to…now if I can find the time!