«Previous    Next»
She's Turning Rocks Into Money
Old, worn farm discs find new purpose in Jean Kruft’s Rock Spring Fountains.
  “I provide all the parts. The customer puts it together and adds the rocks,” says the owner of the Wigwam gift shop in Lake George, Minn. Once owned by professional wrestler “Baron” von Raschke and shaped like a wigwam, the gift shop has been a popular tourist tradition in the heart of Minnesota lake country since 1952.
  The kit includes a disc blade, a 5-gal. bucket, a small circulating pump, plastic tubing and one rock with a hole drilled through the center of it.
  Setup is easy. Dig a hole to bury the bucket leaving the lip a little above ground to avoid dirt from falling in. Place the pump at the bottom of the bucket, and fill the bucket with water. Connect the tubing to the pump, and run it up through the hole of the disc placed on top of the bucket and then through the rock with the hole that is on top of the disc.
  Cover with clean rocks.
  “I just plug it in and let it run,” Kruft says. “The discs work well because of the concave to drain the water back in the bucket.”
  Though the pumps are small and inexpensive, Kruft notes she is using the same ones for a second season. She adds water every couple of days to replace water that evaporates.
  Customers buy her do-it-yourself bubbling fountains to create water features in their home gardens and cabin landscaping. They can personalize them with rocks they’ve collected on vacations or picked from their fields.
  Kruft sells the disc fountain kits for $28 at the Wigwam from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
  “I would ship them if people wanted me to, but I also like the idea of people making their own,” Kruft says.
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jean Kruft, The Wigwam of Lake George, 37324 Co. Rd. 4, Lake George, Minn. 56458 (ph 218 699-3129; jkruft82@gmail.com; www.wigwamlakegeorge.com).



  Click here to download page story appeared in.



  Click here to read entire issue




To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.
Order the Issue Containing This Story
2013 - Volume #37, Issue #4