Remember my bird bath?
It’s been an interesting journey with this one. I’ve learned so much along the way. This bath came in a kit with the option to either hang it or put it on a stand. The first winter we had it, I hung it. The only bird who would even occasionally come near it were House Finches. Day after day I’d empty the hanging block of ice to refill it with warm steamy water hoping to lure some of the birdies to the bath. No such luck.
In the spring I took it down, tired of messing with dumping it from over my head, and put it on the not so sturdy stand that came in the kit. Voila! The birds “discovered” the bath, and I had to fill it every day to keep up with them. However the flimsy stand didn’t work well, and I had to keep experimenting with different ways of propping it up at the base to keep the thing level. Whew! After a series of different rocks and cinderblocks, I finally found the perfectly shaped rock to keep the bath at a more even keel. That is as long as Qade would leave it alone! 🙂 I got that all worked out just in time for one of the 3 prongs on the stand to break!! Oh brother! Fortunately I was able to keep it up on the stand using the other two along with the ‘nub’ of the broken one.
The box that the bath came in talked about how the bath would eventually tarnish to a lovely “antique” look since it’s bronze. Imagine how happy I was to notice that it really was ‘antiquing’ as I used it outside.
See? Doesn’t it look so bird-bathy? Imagine my dismay this fall as I realized that it was “tarnishing” right through the bottom of the bowl!! I stood inside admiring the freshly filled birdbath from my living room. The Robins LOVE the bird bath, and I’m glad because since they aren’t seed eaters I’d never see them otherwise. But I noticed that there seemed to be a steady dripping coming from the bath. Sometimes I’m sloppy and slosh a little over the edge when filling it, but this seemed too steady for that. So I braved the chill to go back out and investigate. Sure enough, as I crouched down eye level with the bottom of the bath I could see sunshine through a teeny little hole. 🙁
Well, not one to be daunted by one teeny-weeny hole, I set about figuring out a way to “fix” the problem. I am after all, Mrs. Fix-it! My initial thought was to seal it with some Gorilla glue. A somewhat thorough search of the garage didn’t find any, but I did come across this really cool foam filler stuff that my hubby had bought for ‘something.’ I figured if it was good for filling gaps and things, it would be just the thing to fill the tiny hole in the bird bath. (dramatic pause)
After filling the hole…. and then reading the can and realizing it was a “one time use” type of stuff… I humbly apologized to my hub and asked him what else needed to be “filled.” 🙂
This amazing foam doubles in density as it dries, so I was sure that the hole would be fixed albeit kinda ugly as there was now a big blob of foam on the inside and the bottom of the bath. Well, birds don’t care, they just want water! Sure enough it worked!!
One day not long after, I again noticed a steady drip-drop from the bird bath. *sigh* This time the underneath inspection showed not one, but two little spots of sunshine showing through the bottom. Grrrrrr…. Not to be cowed by a little thing like rusting metal I once again set out to fix the issue. I found some Gorilla tape and put a nice sized hunk on each of the sunshine spots. Dunno if it was the liquid or the cold that kept that tape from adhering as well as I imagined it should, but either way it wasn’t working well.
Finally the last straw came when I dumped the ice out of the bowl one morning only to notice that the “foam” had fallen out with the ice. Arg!! Ha ha ha!! An epiphany hit me just then. Rather than fix the little holes one at a time, what if I lined it with something??? Plastic? Nah, not good for the birds… uh, aluminum foil? Yes! I smiled to myself at my own brilliance and took the bath inside for a cleaning and new lining. Part way through the project my bubble burst as I realized that the foil I had was not wide enough to cover the whole bottom in one go. 🙁 This meant the “liner” would have to have a seam. We all know what happens with seams and water right?? Yeah…
So this is my bird bath now…
You can see the foam, or what’s left of it not working any more, and the Gorilla tape, and the aluminum foil.
Here is the ice that is forming due to the constant drip through the foil, through the bath, through the foam and tape.
It kind of makes a bit of a prop, so at least it’ll be level while there is water in it.
I miss my pretty birdbath from before… but like I said, this one has taught me a few things. Not the least of which is that if you buy something that says it’ll “tarnish to an antique look” that’s just marketing gibberish for “the bottom will rust out and you’ll curse the day you chose this product!” 🙂 I’m not giving up though! Stores don’t carry birdbaths till spring, and Amazon charges a fortune in shipping for them. I have another GREAT idea that I’m certain will work this time! I’ll keep you posted. 😉
