The next day I made a list.  Barrel, liner, pump, tubing, bricks or blocks and pots.  I grabbed Jen (the yard killer) and went to the hardware store.  One of those "Home Something" stores.  Whiskey barrels were $21.  Liners were $19.  That's $40.  Not good.  We went inside to look at the pots.  We found the biggest pot I've ever seen.  It was a plastic job over 40 gallons for $25 and we grabbed it.  We did a 180 in the isle and the pumps were right behind us.  This was a sign from the pond gods.  This was meant to be.  We found a 170 gallon pump with a 6 foot cord.  No good.  I needed more length.  The other "Home" store had a 170 pump with a 12 foot cord, but I was tired of driving.  (I had already done the rounds to check prices that morning.)  So I went for the 300 gallon pump with the 12 foot cord.  Was I going to end up with a whirlpool instead of a pond?  That was yet to be seen, but it had a flow control on it so I was confident it would work.  We walked out with a pot and pump for just a little over $60.

The next morning I went back to the other "Home" store and passed through the pump isle on the way to the nursery to check out bricks and blocks.  I stopped dead in my tracks.  Vinyl covered wire pot hangers!  I was dumbfounded.  Why deal with heavy square bricks and blocks that never sit right in a round pot.  I could hang the pot hanger on the inside on the pond pot, put a clay pot in it and plant my water plants.  I grabbed one and then found a standard clay pot to fit it.  I was jazzed.  This project was coming together.  Would the wire rust?  That's yet to be discovered.  I also grabbed a bag of Mexican black beach stones to fill the flower pot to hide the tubing.  The idea was to poke the tubing through the hole of the pot, fill the pot with rocks and hang the pot just right so the water cascaded into the pond.  I brought it home and started.  The pot in this picture is the first pot I bought and was too tall.  I later went back for a second wire hanger and bought 2 azalea pots, same size, but much shorter.  They were perfect.  I also had to take a piece of scrap hose to make bushings for the whole in the pot because the water was also coming out of the bottom.  After putting the bushings in place I was able to snuggly push the tubing through the hole.  MUCH better.  I also placed the tubing towards the top of the pot and faced it towards the edge.  In the picture above, the tubing is right below the surface of the rocks.     

Now I had to do the dirty deed and go to the nursery to check out the water plants.  "The" nursery.  The one I've been avoiding for 16 years.  I grabbed the yard killer again (Jen).  We picked out a water hyacinth, a water lettuce and 6 various types of potted water plants.  We were in business and headed back home to fill the pots with plants and rocks.  By the way, we also checked out a little bonsai bed they had built with 5 foot sections of wired together landscape posts and rock.  That's the next project for the moonscape around the silk tree.