project satelite dish bird bath

objective:
i wasn’t too fond to begin with when my neighbor decided to put up a satellite dish in my backyard’s “air-right-of-way” several years ago. even though it’s installed “onto” his building, it’s still rather encroaching and i’m sure there’s a city code about it. in any case, not until recently, i noticed that the apartment which the cable fed into was vacant. so i helped myself to my heart’s desire and remove this eye sore. as i took it down, i thought it’d be a shame to just discard it, as i felt that this was a good steel structure. well, the pack-rat in me couldn’t see it go, so i bent it back and forth, and all of a sudden it hit me, i could make a bird bath out of it!

challenges/procedure:
i removed most of the miscellaneous doohickey that i didn’t think i needed, i.e. the cable wires and all that signal retrievers. since i had a 1” copper tube laying around (also from a recent ‘pack-rat’ incidence several weeks earlier), i decided to put it to good use and cut about 3’ of it. i started hammering the poor thing like a madman into the ground with my buddy sledgehammer, which i’ve nicknamed “ong khai” after my dad. he always comes in handy! slide the satellite post over it, adjust the angle for optimal water holding capability (uh…that would be…flat!), fill it up with water and you got yourself a bath! so now, i’ve built Rome. i can only hope the “people” will come!

features:
well, it holds water. and as an extra touch, i did purchase a little bird feeder which i’ve attached to it.

summary:
it did take a few days, actually, a week, as i neared a feeling of disappointment when, to my joyful delight, i noticed for the first time a pair of birdies swooping down to this new playground of theirs. they pecked innocently at the water, glanced back and forth in that rigidly quick “high on caffeine” movement, then just flew away. that just made my day.
project satellite dish bird bath: pass!