My little hole in the ground

Aaron S

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My ponding woes started about 4 years ago. My mother lost here house and she had a little preformed pond that was put at my place for "temporary" storage. After 2 years of dealing with this thing in my yard, so we ended up installing it in a flowerbed that was boxed by the house, driveway and sidewalk. This little pond worked pretty good for about 2 years, then we experienced a couple of problems.
SmallPond11.jpg

Problem #1) My son has Aspergers Syndrome mixed with extreme high anxiety. Once we put the pond in my son started using it to help deal with stress and to relax. This became a great benefit for having the pond :). Well one day he was 8 years old and he woke up and could not move anything below his neck. So we called the ambulance and sent him to the local hospital, they could not find anything so they airlifted him to Children's Hospital about 8 miles away. Again they could not find anything wrong with him and he was in the hospital for 5 weeks with not much improvement. Then finally his geneticists had a breakthrough. This other geneticists did a study and found 4 known cases of this in the country. When my son gets stressed out his muscles will start deteriorating. So they checked his PCK level. This is the enzyme that is produced when a muscle experiences trauma. This is what makes your muscles hurt after a workout. On a normal adult, their PCK level will go up to 150 after experiencing a high speed roll over car crash. When we check his it was over 4,000! So they flushed his system as best as they could and eventually he came home but was in a wheelchair for a couple of months. One day me and him was working on the little pond enjoying some father son time. He was still in the wheelchair and I needed to run to the store to get a part. He was outside watching the pond and his little sister and mom came out while I was gone. Then they went back inside and the second he was by himself the neighbor across the street came over and started cussing out my son! He was saying that my son was faking everything and just got in his face. :mad: This was a 40 year old man going after an 8 year old boy in a wheelchair. When I arrived my son was dragging himself up on the porch trying to drag himself into the house to get away and this guy was running across the street. So cops were called and the entire incident just made it to where my son would not go outside for anything.
Problem #2 Later that summer we had dust bowl type drought. It go so dry that the ground around the pond shrunk way up. Then I turned on the water hose to water the flower bed. The ground got wet and expanded so quickly that it busted a 6 inch gash in the pond!
Thankfully a friend at work had a large liner that he was not using so he gave it to me. So it was without a question that the new pond will be in the back yard. So because our fish were living in a bucket we acted too fast and threw the pond in the ground with out really thinking about it.
LargePond1.jpg


So far we have not been very happy with the location of it and we need a much better filter system. So we must figure out how to have a stream with cascading waterfall and either a bog filter or a Skippy filter. I do want something that works.
Here is a few other pics around the pond.
LargePond2Waterfall.jpg

This here is my waterfall right after installation.
NWCornerofPond08-04-2014.jpg

This is the overall view of the pond. Don't care much for the green water.
Roserock08-04-2014.jpg

One of my Rose Rocks. Central Oklahoma is one of the very few places where they occur naturally. I got this one while fishing at a lake about 3 miles from my house.
GrassPlant08-04-2014.jpg

I include some history in my pond. The flat chunk of concrete came from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, after the Oklahoma City Bombing. The little chunk to the left of it was some debris found in my yard during the May 2013 Tornado Outbreak. The one in the concrete next to that came from my elementary school when they tore it down to build a brand new school. I don't know why but I save stuff like that. Inside the house we also have a piece of the Berlin Wall that my wife got. She was living about a block away from it when they tore it down.
JesusRock08-04-2014.jpg

This guy here keeps a watchful eye over my pond. It is a little hard to see but this is my Jesus rock. I got bored one day about a decade ago and found this flat part on this rock and found my rotary tool and free handed it in. It is not the best drawing but this was my first in rock.
 

addy1

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Love the stories behind the rocks! I found a bunch of the rock roses while sand biking in the south east border of utah. Coral pink sanddunes, really neat rocks.

I hope your new pond is helping your son, that is UN-beleivable a adult would to something like that to a kid. Like how your waterfall is turning out.
 

Aaron S

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Yeah, he is 11 now and is doing pretty good. At least three evenings a week we spend out there just hanging out. The mother in law comes over and we just all gather around and watch the hours pass.
We really don't watch enough television to warrant cable so me and him will sit up a radio out there and listen to the OKC Thunder game or the OU Sooners.
This year for my birthday, the wife got me some red and white lights for the pond so that I can have the pond set up in OU colors while we listen to the game.
Then when I fire up my smoker, half the neighborhood (minus the guy across the street) will show up with meat for me to cook. Before you know it we have 30-40 people back there just visiting and watching the fish.
Don't know why but people gravitate to my house. It is not the nicest house by a long shot but we always have a house full. For example my daughter had one of her Girl Scout friends come over and spend the night. That was 6 weeks ago and she still has not gone back home :wideyed: Her parents show up every couple of days to have dinner and to pick up her laundry. Some times I wonder if my wife is running a center for lost kids. Kids just show up and stay for a while then disappear.
We as a family have discovered that hanging around by the pond and in the back yard is so much more fun then getting lost in the warm comforting glow of the moving picture box. :)
 
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Love the story behind the rocks and the picture you drew on the rock is beautiful!!

It sounds like you have a warm welcoming home where people like to just hang out, which is great and I'm hoping my son will feel comfortable bringing his friends to hang out when he's older (he's only 4, I have a few more years to our self for now ;)

I would suggest a bog then a waterfall. With the bog you can plant beautiful plants and flowers which will add to the surrounding and you wil lbe able to enjoy when you hang out there. I love to get some interesting plants and flowers and love to talk about it to people so that's my usual conversation starter lol.

I'm sorry your son had to go through such a mean spirited person, I hope he will never have to face those kind of situation again. I'm so glad a pond helps him. He will enjoy the fish then the fry then the frogs and all the life the pond brings.
 

Aaron S

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Yeah I forgot to mention. When we first got the pond we needed some fish. I got a couple of Koi and within a week they disappeared. Got some more with the same results. So tired of spending money on fish I went to Petsmart and got some of their $0.15 Comet Goldfish. That was 4 years ago and since we have lost only 2 out of the original 10 that we got. The biggest is about 8 inches long that is bright orange and a white spot along each side. My daughter named it Fishstick and the name stuck! Last fall the kids won a couple more goldfish at the school carnival, and after quarantine we added them.
This year I am assuming that we had several batches of fry. This is the first time our goldfish spawned. Right now we have some that are 1 inch, some that are 1/2 inch and some that are about 1/4 inch. We are on our third batch of tadpoles this year and our back yard is full of frogs that are smaller than a penny. I need to take pics of them, they are really cool.
 
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The pond is looking great. Its always going to be a work in progress even when you have it the way you initially wanted when your first started it. As time passes you will want more or different things so it is forever evolving. You sound like you have you have the old school America family thing going on at your house. I am glad to here that it is still alive and well somewhere in the world. Sorry that your son had to deal with that and you my friend are a better person than I. The cops would have been called but only to bring me in for a quick 90 day spit lol. Keep doing what your doing because you sound like your doing it right. As far as the pond goes I would suggest a bog with some plants to help soak up that extra nutrients that is causing the green water and maybe some extra plants in the water aswell.

good luck
 

Aaron S

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The past couple of years has been very hard health wise. I have had a heart attack, 2 heart surgeries, and back surgery and yet I'm turning 40 this month.
A lot of days I'm stuck in bed and can't move much. So with the pond always needing something to do, it forces me to get up and get moving around which is what I need.
Right now the plan is, this weekend I'm going to tear down the waterfalls/stream and start working on a Skippy type filter. SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) and I are planning on next spring putting in a bog by the patio, and have a 40' stream that cascades down to the pond. Then we will see what transpires from that. That is one of the things I love about having the pond, working on it is just as relaxing as sitting around it.
My other passion is astronomy and I have a 12" Dobsonion Telescope, and nothing is more fun then setting up the scope and exploring the Universe while listening to the soothing sound of a cascading waterfall.
 
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Just a suggestion, if you keep the stream at the same level as the pond, the fish will swim up and down it and do a lot of spawning in the fast-moving water. My fish spend half the day traveling up and down. I have a fairly limited space, but I wanted to provide as many different types of areas as I could, so they have the deep pool, a shallow gravel bed, and the stream, then a shallow pool at the far end, and many seem to have their preferences about which area they want to occupy.

Also keep in mind other types of fish. Shubunkins are great because they will mix with the regular comets and grow to the same sizes. You can also get minnows -- either mosquito fish or rosy-reds -- and they will school together and enjoy the fast current from the stream.

Gotta love how relaxing the sound of moving water is. I was in a bad car accident when I was 40. Once I could get around on crutches I would go out and sit in the grass beside my little pre-form. I ended up spending a lot of time planning a new pond, and when I was able to, I started digging up the yard. My new pond takes up about 1/4 of my back yard, and has really changed the entire feel of the yard.
 

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I think all you need is to build yourself a good filter and maybe get a uv .I have a uv now and I am amazed at what they do with my new rebuilt pond .I never needed one before and I have an 18 watt 1 I bought on ebay on my pond on it's own 370 gph pump .My other pumps are 2 laguna's .Sorry to say there are terrible people in this world that don't think before they react .I like your pond and it looks healthy enough and ponds make your stress level go down and relax you .Just the sound of the water makes me feel good .
 
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Hello! And welcome To our forum!
I think it's wonderful that you have something to share with your son. My best friends son has Aspergers as well as anxiety; which I believe unfortunately goes along with it. He is 13 now and doing soooo much better, he's even in Middle School, and looking forward to his 8th grade year :) he has his ups and downs but has really; idk if grown up is the right thing to say, but he's dealing with the difficulties of his disorder much better as he gets older. He is OCD and one of his things is lawn mowers lol, he could sit and watch someone mow for hours :)
Unfortunately, Noah "looks normal", which as you know is common as well, and it's hard for people to understand why does and is the way he is. He's and amazing young man and I'm sure your son is too.
 

Aaron S

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Went to see the local pond guy and picked a few plant. It may be a little late in the year but the pond guy only charged me a buck each for them.
I got a Peppermint Stick
PepermintStick08-10-2014.jpg

I also picked up another plant. Not sure what type it is but I really like the foliage of it.
UnknownPlant08-10-2014.jpg

If anyone can help me identify it that would be great.
Was going to do some work on the pond but I slipped on some mud hurt my back, so I am down for a couple of days.:cry:
 

addy1

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The second one looks like a umbrella plant

"
This Madagascar Native can bring an exotic touch to any pond, porch or landscape. Thin blades are arranged like an umbrella on the tips of 4' stems. The umbrella palm will flourish in areas where its roots are covered by up to 10" of water or where it is simply in fertile soil.

Excellent accent plant! Overwinter inside by a sunny window in zones 6 and below."
 

Aaron S

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The second one looks like a umbrella plant

"
This Madagascar Native can bring an exotic touch to any pond, porch or landscape. Thin blades are arranged like an umbrella on the tips of 4' stems. The umbrella palm will flourish in areas where its roots are covered by up to 10" of water or where it is simply in fertile soil.

Excellent accent plant! Overwinter inside by a sunny window in zones 6 and below."
Thanks a lot Addy. Once gave me the name I was able to look it up. Looks like it is a nice addition to my pond. I think that I'm in either zone 7 or 8. It seems like they are changing it every time I turn around. Personally I don't see how we can get any plants to grow here. Two years ago I went to work at four in the morning and it was a record low of -30 F. When I went home 12 hours later it was a record high of +73 F. That was officially a change of over 100 degrees in 12 hours! Just crazy!
 
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Aaron S

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Hopefully soon we will be doing some major work soon to the back yard. We are looking at cutting down the trees in the back yard sometime in October.
PecanTrees08-04-2014.jpg

They are large Native Pecan trees. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Pecan trees but these trees are EVIL! :devil:
They were on the property when we bought the house in 2003 and have been nothing but trouble since. We have two trees like this in the front yard that has damaged our vehicles. It looks like hail damage but it is from pecans falling. Two years ago I was mowing and a pecan fell and knocked me out cold! Twice we have had to replace our roof because of pecans.
Unfortunately I will have to completely remove my pond before we go to work because I have had to replace 2 liners because of those darn trees and I don't want to replace another one.
On the plus side at this time, once the trees are down, I plan on hiring someone with a backhoe to come in and dig the stumps out. This will allow me to triple the size of the pond and add a bunch of features that I want. I'm looking in the neighborhood of 20 X 30 X 4. That will give me enough room to build a small observatory.
 
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OMG . What a story. I never thought of pecans as evil, or of the ground expanding fast enough to rip a liner. If you have the money, you could go with a concrete structure and a polyurea coating. This can deter all breaches as far as I know. It's a pretty penny, but may be worth it. 20 x 30 x 4 is pretty big and might be worth looking into.
 

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