#Thegreatpoolpondconversion - 210425.2
Yeah, like we weren’t going to explain every nauseating detail that happened this week.
Since we decided to lower the water level a couple of inches, we saw the need for more rock to cover the now exposed liner.
And more pebbles to cover the rest of the top shelf. So we order another ton of slate and 40 bags of chips.And oh yes that means more power washing, but later.
Since the delivery schedule was unclear, we took 20 pieces of slate with us in the car so we could work this weekend on the water wheel and chute.Turns out they delivered Saturday anyway.And now we’re pros, right?
So instead of ordering flatbed truck delivery with a nice fork lift that would gently and neatly lay the pallets where wanted, we opted for the dump truck technique. It’s a bit messier.
We started draining out a foot of water for sunday’s plans and then started moving these rocks and bags.Load 20 pieces onto the cart, drive to the back, unload, repeat.Halfway through (that’s 1,000 lbs) and we realized we got the wrong pallet of slate.They scheduled to re-deliver our rock Monday. Good thing we took those 20 pieces.
We built the rock pile riser by the pond edge, put the wheel and chute in place. It looked good.
Sunday we took down the prototype and did it right - hiding the hose, getting the height right, then tying it into the filter. It took a while and some clever adjustments and we got real close.Mona Lisa Vito (My Cousin Vinny) something, something..”accurate”
Considering all the moving parts, we eyeballed it pretty well.Wheel height, water depth, chute length, filter position.
Except for one thing. To get the flow to work, the chute has to be sloped right, and that means the filter has to be so high.We had been testing it with a garden hose. The actual pond pump puts out a lot more water. So the water backed up and leaked out the top end of the chute.We raised the filter a few inches.
Nope.
And a few more.
And more.
And more.
We had to take down and rebuild the tower a bunch of times before we got to 7 inches.
Time for lunch.
Then a quick trip to home depot for a 2x8, built another riser, and it’s perfect.
This was the last major construction / functional part of the pond. It’s done.
(There is some fine tuning to do.)
Now remember way, way back.
A filter wasn’t part of original design.And of course neither was a water wheel.
We were going for naturally balanced. We still are. The filter is just ‘assisting’, and it doesn’t pump that much water.
The chute part went through 4 designs before we even got serious with it.
And here we are. Ta-da.
We are fine tuning the the balancing; also incrementally.
A big order of hornwort is coming - our favorite oxygenator plant.
And we’ll be adding activated carbon to the filter.
We ruled out other chemical or electricity based solutions.
And we’ve mentally down shifted.
There was a big urgency getting the sandbag walls and sand done so we could get the liner in place so we didn’t have to worry about rain any more.Remember back then? Good times.
Then there was urgency in getting 13 tons of rock done because we wanted to see the pond with water in it after 18 months.
After it filled, we slowed down a gear - not so much ‘urgency’ anymore.
And now we’re slowing down another gear.
The pressure is off. The need for back breaking speed is gone.
We still have a long list: finishing the wooden screen enclosure, another round of sea scaping with rocks and pebbles, some bird perches, and some solar tweaking. Time consuming yes, but all sort of minor stuff. The last grow bed and fences don’t count - they’re ‘project’ but not ‘pond’.
Now we can take it in smaller, more bite sized pieces.
We might even take a sunday off. Oh, we kid, we kid.
Here’s an index of all the postings in #thegreatpoolpondconversion