06/13/2026
Wanted to show you a hobby electronics and brute force project I've started. You're gonna like this one as it is coming together as a classic CDC Cellular/Francis' Keys jeri-rig innovation extraordinaire.
What we have here is an abandoned garden fountain in the back yard. The history behind it was that my parents put it in back in the 90s, as they always wanted one. My Dad built it for my Mom and while he maintained it, after he passed away it fell into neglect. It originally had a rather expensive concrete three tiered fountain in the middle which I restored for Mom in 2013. Unfortunately a massive tree branch, basically a log, fell out of the sky and destroyed it. Mom found a surprisingly attractive fiberglass one but that too suffered the same fate. Eventually she got a smaller metal one which is still with us.
In the final years of Mom's life, the fountain basically faded away. But I've decided to bring it back to life and have already done the basics. The good news is that it doesn't need a lot. I had converted it to a fire pit the last couple of seasons but grew wary of that due to being in a partially wooded area and the mess. So I cleaned that out and resanded the base. I have a new liner on order. I already made one pass with the power washer and it looks better but I am going to use an oxycleaner and second power wash to further clean and brighten those stones back up.
The real key is how will I power it? That was the part my Dad never did. Occasionally he'd run an extension cord over to it but due to not being hard-wired, it never quite reached its potential. I am not certain as to why he never had is wired but have a hunch. Very hard ground to trench into, but also it would need a separate circuit to bring an outlet out there. Additionally there are permits and inspections, and the house is on a well and it's not clear where the path of the wiring for that is located. Simply put, while hard-wiring is entirely possible, it would also be expensive and really a lot of work.
That's where technology is now our friend. Can this thing be powered without hard wiring? Yes and I'm planning to go that route. The back area of the yard is sunny. Put up a 200W array of solar panels on a pole, run the cables over in a shallow depth trench to a box with a charge controller and LifePo4 50AH battery and power it that way. It's not terribly expensive, eco-friendly, and damn innovative.
That setup would provide enough power to run the pump and some small submersible lights for about 4-5 days on battery alone.
I can then do mulching around the outside and plant some hostas and so forth and we have something.
The AI image, created by my friends at ChatGPT, gives a fairly decent simulation of what the finished product will look like. I think it will be pretty nice.
