Jaci Dawn

Quick! What do you do when your husband says, “Here’s a bucket of mixed concrete. I didn’t need the whole bag.”

Uh-

“Maybe you can make a bird bath,” he adds.

Uh-

Grab a bunch of roundish-rocks, a handful of rhubarb leaves, and haul the 5-pound bucket over to a bare spot in the yard. Pile the rocks in the center so they form sort of an inverse bowl shape (no need to be perfect) and place the rhubarb leaves (face down) on top of them, covering the rocks as well as you can. The shovel as much of the wet mix onto the leaves, patting the surface with the back of the shovel. (Wear gloves – I had some on when he handed me the bucket.)

I put an old lawn chair over the wet mound to keep the dogs away from it. The stuff my husband used is a quick-set stuff you can buy at a hardware store for less than $5. It fills a 5-gallon bucket. He added enough water to mix it thoroughly and used half of it to set a post in the ground. The rest was my bonus.

It hardened overnight despite the rain – it was pretty much hard to the touch before I went to bed on Sunday. But then we had two days of rain storms and I didn’t get back out to it until yesterday.

It wasn’t as heavy as I fear it would be, but I did need to lever it up enough for me to get my fingers under it to flip it. Some of the rocks fell out easily, but several were wedged in a little tighter.

I actually had to use a screwdriver to lever three of these rocks out. The lip of the bowl is embedded with filbert shells, but that’s easy enough to clear off.

Or not. I found the rhubarb leaves aren’t so easy to peel out, either.

The self-help video I watched (after I did this, of course) made that step look easy, but then she added, “Or you can let Nature remove the rhubarb.” So maybe she had a bit of a problem peeling the leaves off, too. (She was making stepping stones and was prepared for the process with a bed of sand, a level, and damp burlap. I punted.)

I stuck my foot into the photo for size comparison. It’s a nice-sized bowl. I got as much of the rhubarb peeled out as I could, but Nature will have to take her course with what is left. I’ll pick at the hazelnut shells, but some of them are probably embedded for the life of the bird bath (or whatever I decide to use the bowl for).

I filled it with water after I noticed I had a hole in the side. I wanted to see how long it would take to drain out. It’s actually a slower leak than I expected.

My mind has been running over this. If I was going to use the bowl as a bird bath, I would have to find a way to repair that. But if I were to use it in a home-made waterfall…

We’ve talked about building a waterfall feature in the back for years. There’s already a natural stone in place that collects a little water…

That will be another DIY post, and probably a long time from now. Meanwhile, I have a leaky home made bird bath, created with very little planning (as in, thinking on my feet).

Comments welcome. 🙂