Next new pond

[capewind]

By most peoples standards this is going to be a butt ugly pond.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you enjoy it, who cares what others think of the appearances

 

[HTH]

This one is not about anything but bare bones necessity,

Both of these liners will end up on the on other side of the yard but for now it makes sense.

 

[HTH]

An update.

I did cleaned up a bit more and soaked the pond bottom again.

Laid the liner.

Filled it with water from the other pond.

Emptied it again so I could recenter the liner and take a few wrinkles out.
A bit of water in the bottom makes the liner easier to manage.

Second fill.

My plan is to do something with the low edge and hide most of the liner by burying it in the dirt.
On the high side next to the other wall I would like to create an algae wall (if that is what it is called).

Rather then get another block from storage I grabbed a sad old paver. Another example of an process that does not happen

But now I want to wait for the next cold snap to pass and then move all the lilies to the above pond stacked something like this. The person doing the stacking will have to curl up the new leaves and put them down in the pot. Or just make sure they do not get crunched. Plan is to use the backhoe as a crane to more the pots from one pond to the other with a person on each end. Start with the new pond empty. The grasses and rushes can go into stock tanks or such. may have to improvise. Then we drain the big pond moving the fish to the lifts and start work on cleaning and repairing the sides on the big pond.

 

[HTH]

Yesterday I plumbed in the 2nd row of lifts and today I installed an air line around the outside. If all goes well I can find the rigid clear airline I use and get the bubbles going tomorrow. I either need to double up on the pump or setup a larger one. This is a 780gph Rio+2500. I just added a 2nd does of nutrients which is causing the foam. The 'top hat barrel filter' is upflow. You can see how EPDM liner was used to seal the 4" down pipe to the bottom of the hat.

Video

 

[HTH]

Now that the pond holds water it is time to put it to work. The first task will be to hold the water lilies from the other pond so we empty and work on it. The fish will go into the containers shown in the previous post.

We are letting Mr Backhoe (aka the Dirt Master) do the heavy lifting. Deb is loading the lilies. Some have to be cut as the are too heavy to move.

We had or noticed our first bloom today. It was a yellow. This is the progress to lunch break. Deb thinks we are 1/4 done I am thinking somewhat less. Hope she is right.

Deb getting a lily ready to load.
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A lily in Mr Backhoe's grasp.
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Deb mucking about in the TO pond. Most of the plants have jumped their pots so rather then stacking them neatly in an empty pond like I had originally planed they are uncerimonously dumped into the water.
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Using a frog's eye water sprinkler to keep then wet while we have lunch.
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As a side note I have figured out that I am going to replace the liner in the big pond with the one which eventually end up in this location. That lets me dig a new pond for the 'big pond' liner on the other side of the yard where I want it. A lot like one of the games where you move the squares around with just one open spot.

 

[HTH]

The new pond/hole was only large enough to hold 3/4 of the lilies. May have gotten them all in if we packed them but that would be even rougher on them the current non kind treatment. Going to try to put the rest in a 6 foot stock tank. Wife likes her caddis hip waders.

 

[addy1]

wow I thought I had a ton of lilies, you way beat me.

 

[HTH]

A few more pics from yesterday

As we worked the heaviest lilies were pulling the backhoe into the smaller pond when the boom was rotated in that direction. By days end I had to bridge the pond corner with a 2x4 and use the hydraulic stablizer leg to raise the wheel above the pond edge and pull the backhoe away with the little toy pickup.

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The pond sure looks empty


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We are going to freeze and may get snow. To protect the exposed lily roots we tarped them over.

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[tazcat70]

Wow! That is a lot of lilies.

 

[HTH]

It was cold yesterday and we opted not to work in cold water. Last night it snowed and I got a shot but some of it has melted. It is just enough snow to let you know moisture is possible but not enough to do any good.

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[HTH]

We are back at it. So far we have moved most of the marginals. I have been loading them onto a little 2 wheel trailer with the backhoe. Each time a plant is unloaded you also get a few gallons of water. After a few trailer loads of plants were carted away the mud was so bad I got the little orange go-put (riding mower) stuck twice or 3 times. Then it ran out of gas.

A few new images.
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[HTH]

double post

 

[addy1]

wow that is one heck of a lot of work, glad it is you and not me for once!

 

[HTH]

wow that is one heck of a lot of work, glad it is you and not me for once!

If it were not for the back hoe I doubt I would be doing it either.

Wife found something interesting. A rhizome cluster in one section of the pond had grown around pots and lifted them up. Some pots as much as a foot off the bottom. I was thinking that the lilies in these pots had died and they floated up due to decomposition generating gas in the pot. Glad to see they are alive. It would have been fun to drain the pond and see the pots sitting that way but we had real work to do.

The bad news is now that we are into that section of lilies there are many more there then expected. Well good and bad. Good they are alive and bad that they have to be processed.

 

[addy1]

All I can say is enjoy!