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| Week Four |
| Monday- Took the daycare kids shopping with me today and picked up the park bench, an Elephant Ear, 2 Macho ferns, and some parts so I can make a feeding ring. Everyone's doing fine and enjoying the new pond. Need to do a water change tomorrow to bring down the salt level before I put the hyacinths in. |
| Elephant Ear- needs to be transplanted yet |
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| Tuesday morning (5:30AM) I got up and put together the Park Bench from Big Lots. A place to sit and listen to the waterfall when we don't have a fire going in the chimnea. I really like to shop the sales. |
| Parrots Feather in the other type of "Floating Island". I took 1/2" Drip system hose (50 ft. for $5.99 at Home Depot) and a connector (.49). Then took an old piece of screen and zip striped it to the hose (just to hold it in place while I sewed). Sewed down the two edges with fishing line (really just weaving it in and out of the screen holes) then sewed it around the bottom and pulled the ends together, like a drawstring. Then I sewed the edge of the top to the hose so that I could cut the zip strips off. Tie a piece of fishing line whatever length you need to the bottom and tie it to a rock to keep it in a certain place if you want to. A Floating Island for about $.50 vs the +$21.00+s&h they want online. And I can make them any diameter, or any depth I want! This kind would be used for plants that you didn't want your fish to eat. |
| A Feeding Ring. Put the food in the sections and it stays in place until it sinks instead of going into your skimmer. One more thing made out of the same hose as above. This one costs alittle more than the floating island. Take a 1/2" PVC cross ($.63), 4- 1" pieces of 1/2" PVC and 4 PVC/hose connectors ($.99) sold in the Drip System section. Cut 4 pieces of the hose, (whatever length you want), attach to "T's" ($1.69) sold in Drip System section and then cut 4 more pieces of hose to connect the "T's" together. This way your fish know where to come to eat and you aren't wasting food because it is floating all over the pond. You cold leave the cross pieces out but this way the fish aren't fighting over food in the same section. I don't know how big the ones they sell online are (for $2.00+s&h) but I doubt if they are this big.I tied a piece of fishing line to the cross and then attached it to a rock. Now my fish have to come out where I can see them to eat. |
| Knuckle Buster Wednesday: Well that's what I get for trying to work in the dark. A busted thumb knuckle. Just wanted to get that last piece of siding up that I had cut and...... need I say more...... Geez, does that hurt! (I think I actually chipped a bone) Oh well. Got 4 pieces of siding up around the pond and the large piece for the filter box. I spent some time cutting the liner. I found that if you slit the places where the folds are it lays down nicely which is important because of the 2x8 ledge that is going on top. So that was my night. Finished the last piece of lattce also before calling it quits. I really need those halogen lights from my neighbor again! |
| Bonus Day: Wayne came over tonight (a bonus because they aren't having a pool tournament tonight). We got alot done. Maybe we will get everything finished by this weekend then we will have the whole week off by ourselves with Mark gone to my parents for Spring Break!!!!!!! This morning I did 2 more sides of cutting the liner folds, going to finish the other one this afternoon. Also planted one of the Macho Ferns. |
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| We got all the siding up except the back of the filter box, 1/2 of one side of the filter box and the little pieces to finish off each wall. Also added another joist support under the falls, "L" brackets on the remaining fall ledge and checked out how the LV lights would work lighting up the pond underwater. |
| Friday- Quentin (one of my daycare kids) and I went "Snail Fishing". I found a local pond two years ago that had a ton of them all along the waters edge. So we went out and got 11 big ones. How much are they in the stores? Maybe I'll get more. :-) Went out that morning and applied weather-seal to the boards we put up last night. Then in the afternoon I stained them. |
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| Snails in salt water after bringing them home. |
| DAY 24 |
| DAY 25 |
| DAY 26 |
| DAY 27 |
| DAY 28 |
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| Land Plants:I wanted a plant to soften the sides of the waterfall. I started out with an Australian Tree Fern and Red Margined Draceana but didn't like the fern. So I got some Macho ferns which will spread and grow long shoots. I like this one but will wait until the siding is up to plant them. |
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| One of the lilys I got from Walmart in a kit. They grew really good. |
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| About 2 weeks later. |
| About a month later. |
| Three days old. |
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| We didn't get back from Gainesville until late so we couldn't do any work. Went shopping while we were there and I got the Floating Balls from Walmart for $14.97. Also picked up an elephant spitter (not installed yet) and some pond plant bulbs (both from Walmart). Went to another Gardening Store and got some horsetail rush and some Parrot's Feather. They are sitting in quarantine for now. While driving back we kept looking for Water Hyacinth but didn't see any. At that point I was thinking I was going to have to send Wayne to Tennessee to get me some. We stopped at the river by my parents house and walked the bank. Guess what I found? Across the bank, there was a slew of them growing. So off came the shoes and socks and across the river I went. The water was only knee deep and clear or you wouldn't have seen me in there. There's gators in them waters, I know. I used to swim there as a little girl. Also pulled up a lily on the way back to the car. That's how I like to get plants. Free! Of course, they are sitting in quarantine too. |
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| My little elephant. He's so cute and different. A good buy from Walmart for $35.00. I saw one online that was similar for $65.00. Eventually I will hook him up through the main pump since it has so much power. |
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| Hyacinths I got from the river. See the Floating Island as the online stores call them. I made this out of 1/2" Drip watering system hose and a connector. See below for the other variation of this. |
| Steel Balls from Walmart. I didn't like them floating all over the place so I used some of the liner tape and fishing line and tied them to rocks. Now they float where I want them to and no where else. |
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| DAY 23 |
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| Lily I Pulled From River: I could have gotten 100 of them. |
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