Country Escape's 2nd pond - Goldfish only

[pondlover]

Looking good CE.... you are a working woman!!! You really got alot accomplished today. I'm anxious to see your waterfall in motion and can't wait to see more pics of your new dig. The soreness is so worth it. I trimmed off a piece of liner on the outside of my bog and my husband was going to toss it.... I said "No, that is for my stream that I'm going to do next year." Yep, I've got it bad. :boldblue:

 

[CountryEscape]

I want to make my whole back yard look like some of the yards of ponders on here but OMG, it would take me years to collect all those plants! But, I'm working on it a little at a time. This will for sure be my last pond, after I get this one done, on this property anyhow. LOL Never know how long I will be here, but if I ever move, I will for sure build a pond or two at the next place, too! If new owners don't want the ponds, so be it. I'll take them down and fill in the holes. No problem. At least I have that plan when/if it ever happens!

 

[j.w]

You done good girl and you deserve a night out w/the girls but do save your strength for tomorrow's work and don't use it all up dancing the night away and sleeping til noon cuz ya know ya already gonna lose an hour early Sunday am! :0000000057:

 

[addy1]

Take a break ce, you need to relax now and then, keep the dig fun!

 

[CountryEscape]

Oh, I would definitely have gone out with the girls had the offer been for last night! Would have been good to dance, and loosen up the sore muscles last night. However, it's for this afternoon, around 1, and it's already 9:30, I have not made it outside yet (except to take the pups to go potty) so I will pass. I want to work on the pond and get the filter going. And, when I get tired of digging, I'll put rocks back on the waterfall. That sounds heavy, but my rocks are all typically very manageable. Had to have it that way, as I didn't want to have to use tractor to move them into place. It's going to be a fun relaxing day. I won't overdue it. Soooo glad I've been going to the gym for the last 3 months, as I'm not sore at all this morning, but I sure was feeling the soreness last night! I won't overdo it today. Dig a little, rest a little, watch waterfall, tweak waterfall, dig some more. As long as the rain stays away, I will be good to go. Supposed to be 60 today. Yikes, just looked and supposed to rain between 1 and 2 this afternoon. Guess that will be my lunch time then. LOL Still think I'm going to stay home. Save money, relax with my animals and watch my fish.
Oh, BTW, and I posted this on the frog egg thread, but I was finding small grubs and tons of worms yesterday, and gave a few of them to the fish. Will that hurt them, since water temp was only 48 yesterday, or will it be ok since it's "natural" food? Some of the koi got 2-3 tidbits, a few of the goldies tried the worms when I broke them up smaller. I hope I didn't cause any digestive problems!!! I want to feed more today, as they sure seemed to enjoy it, but I have not fed them anything otherwise. Water should get warmer today with warmer air temps,and the filter/waterfall going to bring more warmth to the water as well.

 

[DrCase]

Your moving along real fast country
Looks good

 

[DrCase]

I have never had a skimmer and looked on line to see if I could find what you meant by the skimmer feeding a stream. What does that look like as I can't seem to picture it in my head? Does It collect debris from the back of a box type skimmer and then have an edge that would pour down into the stream like a waterfall?

On my Top pond ,I have a laundry tub converted into a skimmer
The liner from the top pond folds down into it . The skimmer has two 2" lines running out of it to feed the waterfall in my lower pond

 

[j.w]

Thanks DrCase that helps me envision it more clearly.

 

[CountryEscape]

Today ended up not raining at all, and my body was wishing it had about 5. LOL I twisted my knee while working on the other pond, but it felt ok to dig. Then as if to tell me "enough is enough", it started hurting again in the end, couldn't straighten right leg, so knew it was time to quit. Got a lot accomplished, so happy with the day (even though part of it was spent fixing leaks of one sort or another on my big pond!).
I came across quite a few roots like this one that are too large for my shovel to chop. Don't have an ax, but have a small hand ax. If that doesn't work, I'll have to see who I can borrow an ax from.

I started the day filling the wheelbarrow and putting the dirt on either side of the stream, and sloping it back to the existing yard.

When I came on this "rock" I was afraid it was a foundation slab, but turns out it is limestone, I think, and I can chop it with the tip of my shovel and "shave" it off little by little. Have come upon many pieces of limestone, and some stayed together, most fell apart.

This is what the hole looked like when I quit at the end of the day.

And, I noticed this frog (maybe a leopard frog?) in my bog as I was gathering up tools to be put away. Quite the friendly dude, as I got probably 16" away when I took this pic! (My zoom is not working, so have to crop to "zoom")

All in all a very productive day. The deepest end, by the stream, is less than 3' deep, but once I get the roots out of the way, the next foot will go fast, as usually no roots that deep. Still have the other end to dig, though. I'm about half done in depth to about 32" or so. Have quite a large pile of dirt, plus the pile of sod. I figure the sod will decompose into some nice dirt by the end of the year, too. But, since I filled in lots of holes and replaced grass when I dug the first pond, there really wasn't any need for dirt except to fan out the stream, so just piled it up for now. Always find places for dirt it seems, so it will get used sooner or later.

 

[pondlover]

CE your new pond is going to look awesome next to your big pond. I love your little webbed friend. I'm looking forward to being serenaded by some frogs of my own. :>) I can't believe how dark your soil is. It looks so rich. Ours is red and needs many additives to help something grow. After seeing the roots your having to deal with it sure makes me thankful that we didn't have one.
I hope your knee is feeling better and you aren't doing any serious damage to it. Be careful!

 

[CountryEscape]

Knee is much better already, PL, no worries.
The dirt looks rich because it is wet. LOL If you notice, the stream is dry, and that's why I hurried up and took the pic, so you could see the stream (dry dirt) was lower than the outside edges. It all looks pretty dull now. Funny thing is that I don't hit clay until I'm to about 3' in depth. Same thing on my other pond. However, I had clay at about 12", then it went to black and I mean BLACK dirt, like topsoil, then back to regular dirt and then clay. Strangest thing, but I figured they backfilled after building the house, thus the good black soil so low. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe that "good black soil" is not actually good soil, but so far things are growing very well in it, where I filled in, so I guess it's good stuff. I usually add either top soil or peat moss when I plant stuff, though. Wish I had this soil when I backfilled against my house. It had settled over the years and so I brought in dirt from the pasture and it was CLAY!!! Killed my flower bulbs after the first spring, I guess they got too wet and rotted. Removed lots of that and replaced it with better soil, and this year they came back just fine.

 

[j.w]

Looks grand CE and you really put in a good day of it didn't ya! You will love it w/ your 2 ponds,plant filled bog and neat stream. Can sit out there and just enjoy the fish swimming and the sound of the falls and the croaking froggie friends! Love it!!!

 

[fishin4cars]

Looking good CE, I haven't been able to check post as closely as I would like. Your getting a lot more done than me. every time I think I get a chance to dig it either rains or something more important takes persandence. I'm haveing to wait now on another liner, the first one was suppose to be one size and it was smaller than it was suppose to be so I'm having to wait for the new one to arrive this week. not sure what pond I will be getting up and running first but I'll be the same way when done, one pond for the lily's and goldfish and one for the koi.

 

[koiguy1969]

lookin good CE....

 

[CometKeith]

Country, You are really making good progress. You are so lucky you have to space to build another pond!