Friday I went to my 2 favorite stores, Pondscapes and Westside Aquarium. Spent 3 hours shopping. Came home with a Papyrus for $5.00, the UV light, some anacharis (which I found out the fish have eaten) and some Floating Heart.
Saturday was spent trying to figure out how to install the UV light.
Sunday was Easter of course and my family has a huge picnic. We have our own picnic grounds and there is a pond there. I "borrowed" a sprig of Violet Stemmed Taro.
Monday morning I got up at 4:30 and went outside and started trimming back the land plants to encourage bushy growth. I also had to thin the wildflowers. We went to Home Depot and I got 7 Creeping Jasmine, 3 Creeping Fig and a Fountain Grass to plant. I transplanted some of the smaller plants and did some work around the outside of the pond.
Tuesday I went to the rock place and to my delight what did I find. They had Water Lettuce in one of their ponds. They let me have a few pieces. I'm thrilled! This afternoon I extended the overflow pipe and moved some edging to make the walkway more "user-friendly". Then the fun began. After looking closly at the last ledge of the falls, I decided that it needed some support. So in the pond I go. Used a 8x8' block, a piece of 2x4 and a piece of 3/4" plywood wrapped in black plastic. Well to get the block where I needed it, I had to duck down in the water up to my throat. Was I cold afterward! (wet t-shirt contest at my house) I took all the rock off the ledge to make it easier to lift so that had to be replaced. I had to gather up all the anacharis the fish had uprooted and put it back in pots. Then it was time to transplant the Papyrus. My dad had some large black pots and he let me have one. Once that thing was full of rocks, it was hard to lift. It took Mark and I together and I think we got hernia's. Got that done and decided that I would finally install the elephant spitter. I didn't want to run a small pump for it so I cut a space in the main pump line and attached a 1 1/2"x 1 1/2"x 1/2" threaded "T". It didn't shoot out as much as I expected but it didn't do any worse than with the little pump. And the bonus is that I'm not running a seperate pump (less electricity!) Over the last 2 nights (really mornings, like 5AM) I've been taking pictures of the fish. Hopefully I will have them loaded tomorrow.
Wednesday it rained from 11:00AM on. I did manage to get one of my electric plugs fixed that wasn't working right before the rain began. I can see the bottom of the pond now. Actually I can see the electric cord from the fountain pump. YEAH!!!!!
Thursday what a wonderful day. I went out to look at the water and I could see the bottom clearly. I could see the fishing line that is holding one of the floating balls all the way to the rock. I can even see the canal screen at the bottom of the deep end!!! The water is so much clearer. Of course where the light shines you can see everything clearly so I definately need to get lights at the other end of the pond. I've decided to get the largest transformer they have at Home Depot (300 watts) and then get 2 or 3 20W submersible lights that they sell for $35.00. Then I can hook up not only the pond lights but the yard lights as well on one transformer. Tonight I put the trim moulding on the corners of the pond walls and put the trim moulding around the insides of the posts. Found a snail laying eggs on the post right where I was working. About scared me when I reached around the post and saw it there.
Friday Morning not only could I see the canal screen in the bottom but I could see the holes in the canal screen. The water still looks murky in the daytime but I think that is because of the black liner. So I probably will end up getting that shower pan liner sometime in the future. Sure don't want to put rocks down there again. I do have big river rocks along the edges but I left a path to walk through. So that was my week. This weekend I'm going back to Westside Aquarium to pick up some plants he was getting for me at the nursery. His prices are so good. Nothing that I asked for was more than $5.00 and these will be full grown plants. You sure can't get those prices from an online site.
