Nancy's Pond- Second Week

We fought this liner all day, it wasn't very flexible, and what did we find when we got it into the pond. HOLES!!!! Not just one, but 3. I actually ordered more liner than I needed (and I stopped digging before I had originally planned) so we thought that we could make it work out. Of course, that just wasn't going to happen. So we had to stop and go get some patch tape. Then we found 2 more holes. So we had to drain 1/2 the water out and patch those holes. Then we found that the bulkhead was leaking so we had to drain it again. It was a very frustrating day. I was ready to scream numerous times.

Second Week

The weather just didn't want to cooperate. First we deal with the rain & cold, then a wind storm rolls in. At least it was a fairly warm day.

While Wayne was off getting the patch tape I started working on the risers and ledges.

The last thing I wanted to do was fall backward into the cold water.

Wayne takes his first dip in the pond. All the risers are on. I put 2x2 pieces then filled sandwich bags with sand along each ledge edge to make sure the water stayed to the middle.

The Pile of River Rock: that was around the old pond edge. I actually bleached all these rocks because I think I had a bug, which is part of the reason why I was going to rebuild the pond. I lost around 15 goldfish during December and had to treat the pond. I think it came back when I added some new feeder fish because I started losing fish agian. So everything got a bleach bath. Needless to say, I will never add another fish to my pond unless it has been quarantined first.

Half the Slate: that was around and inside the old pond. It got a bleach bath in the wading pool too.

Wayne drilling the holes for the pipe that would drian from the filter tank. It was another late night. By this time we had taken the fish out of the stock tank and they were patiently waiting in the wading pool. Well I shouldn't say patiently, but you will hear about that on the page titled "My Babies'.

Pond Filling: While the pond was filling the first time we started working on the falls. I ended up using preformed stair risers. It was just as cost effective and a lot less work then building the different levels individually.

DAY 8

    We stopped the night before at 10:30PM, totally exhausted. What you see below is what we ended up doing just so we could have the filter running in order to get the fish back in the pond. (couldn't leave them in the wading pool all night)
     Boy, does that new pump have power!! Right now it is on low speed and I have it valved back 1/2 way. So this is half of low. Wayne says that before I had a pond and now I have Niagara Falls.

     Day 9 was spent trying to figure out why the bulkhead was leaking. Needless to say it was more filling and emptying (at least

DAY 9

DAY 10

So many things had to be moved around. The low voltage lights that were around the pond had to come up. (I'm wanting to put the spotlight on a post aimed at the waterfall.) The valve control box was originally right next to the interior wall, so all those lines had to be cut and moved. What a pain that was. That's Society Garlic around the control box. It was just getting ready to bloom when I dug it up. It doesn't look too bad considering it spent a week in water in the wading pool and the boys kept stepping on it after I planted it.

The skimmer, which will be painted black and the floating plant island I made. More about this and a better picture later.

Mexican Petunias: This bed was originally full of Blue Daze, which I dug up and Heather, which is on the other side. The Mexican Petunias shown below were actually around the edge of the pond. I think I bought 6- 4" pots originally and split them up into 4 pieces each. Some of them didn't even have roots when I originally planted them. They are good growers. This is about half of what I originally had around the pond. Just didn't need the rest.

I had already decided to email the liner company about the holes, so Monday morning that's what I did. They called me later that morning and agreed to send me a 50' roll of tape (they started to offer to send me a new liner but I just couldn't do that to my fish).
Monday afternoon is when I found the leak in the bulkhead again and aanother hole along a wall. After discussing it with Wayne, we decided to contact the liner company again and see exactly what they were going to offer concerning the new liner. So Tuesday I called them and they sent me a 45 ML liner at no extra charge. You do the math. A 20 x 30 45 ML liner and a 50' roll of tape for the price of a 20ML liner.

We got the leak stopped (we thought) on the bulkhead. Needless to say, because of the holes in the liner I couldn't finish the one plant bed so we had to stop.
The plan was to get some repair tape and join one of the leftover pieces to the liner and that way I could finish. Do you realize how expensive that tape is? The store wanted $2.99 a foot and I needed around 8 feet.

down below the bulkhead. Then we lowered the stock tank and used radiator hose to join the tank to the falls. (somehow the holes that were drilled in the wood didn't line up with the holes in the tank................ :).........