pond in progress started 4/21/10

[addy1]

UPDATE!

Got one leg of the fives legs of the stream rocked. Not done but better..........lol It takes about a day to tuck the liner, haul the stones, dig a little to correct the flow................on and on This is looking from the water fall into the pond up stream to the next pond.

Same stream looking towards the waterfall.

Tackled the up slope wall of the pond and the water fall, around 3-4 feet of dirt bank to cover.

Moved 3500 lbs of western maryland wall stone to cover up the sucker. Spent a day and half hauling rock. That rock does stack nicely. The pond still has 5-7 inches of water to go, the black liner you can see at the edge of the wall will be gone, pea gravel will be put on the edge also.

 

[addy1]

Rocked but have not foamed one of the seven waterfalls. This is the biggest one that enters the pond at the end of the stream. Redid the waterfall 5 times, to get it to stack the way I wanted.

Then of course our first swimmer! Well floater, he couldn't find the float so this works!

Sunrise on the grasses around the pond.

 

[99SRXMAN]

AHHH seems like i have seen this some where else GREAT JOB keep it going want to see fin . pics

 

[stroppy]

that is looking really lovely ...just love all the rock ...and those grasses are very pretty ...
and hubby seems to be having fun !! :0)

 

[addy1]

that is looking really lovely ...just love all the rock ...and those grasses are very pretty ...
and hubby seems to be having fun !! :0)

He had just torn down a set of the deck stairs, and was floating watching me haul rocks.........lol

 

[jethro13]

addy this is fantastic. excellent stone work and the whole design will be truly breathtaking. You remind me so much of my wife. She will take on any job and help's me with whatever come's along. She is my best friend. I wish I had run across your thread at the start I may have been able to give you a few pointer's on operating your backhoe since that is what I do for a living. That said it looks like you got it figured out. I can't wait to see the finished product

 

[addy1]

Thanks jethro, after hours of "seat time" I have learned a lot about how to run that back hoe. I still do not like using it on the slope! That little back hoe has plenty of power and will lift and move the kubota in a heartbeat. Tipped it a few times, my heart just stops, until the wheels get back on the ground. The seat belt is always latched and the roll bar is up.

It will be neat when done, unreal the hours into that hole in the ground..........lol

 

[hewhoisatpeace]

Wow, really a nice job coming together. One day... Hell, I just built my first, still polishing it, but a guy can dream, right?

 

[addy1]

Wow, really a nice job coming together. One day... Hell, I just built my first, still polishing it, but a guy can dream, right?

You will be polishing it for as long as you live there. This is my fourth, biggest and worse build because of the slope. The pond in az was large, but this one beats it, and arizona was flat!

And when you move you will begin planning the pond! You might even buy your next house to suit the pond you want to build.

 

[Airic]

Looks fantastic.

I hate to say and be a pessimist but, you may lose that wall by this winter. First, it sits on a slope and there is nothing to divert water or stop erosion. Also when you start getting freeze and thaw conditions it’s going to start pushing that wall.

 

[addy1]

The water is diverted with french drains above, all water goes around the wall. The dirt above the wall is also sloped backwards. The stream above also has broken up the water flow in its path down the hill.

The slope is a lot of rock mixed in dirt, has been stable for years. I would prefer it not fall in the pond and rip the liner, but if it does that...........well hard lesson learned as they say.

The freeze and thaw, yep I have thought of that, will wait and see, if the sucker starts moving, I can tear it down just as I put it up and the rethink how to deal with the slope issues we have.

I hope you are wrong..........lol, but if you are right and I am wrong well, will get even more exercise.

 

[addy1]

Update,
92 degrees, 106 heat index, but we got most of the bog filled. We gave up on washing the gravel, we are going to do the old toilet flush wash. IE let the rain fill the bog (if it ever rains), pull the drain and flush, until we get the dirt out. We spent a day washing, and got nowhere.............lol and with a well and a drought we don't want to push our well.

My honey wheel barreled in as much as he could, about 1/2 of the bog, I used the kubota to fill the wheel barrels. Once we had the bog piping covered up we then used the kubota to tractor the pea gravel in, that liner is awesome, with a little coverage you can drive right on it. Of course not doing any crazy wheelies. It is 15-18 inches deep, a little deeper than a lot of the how to build a bog garden posts say to use. But it should be fine.

We still need to put in the boots to run the pipes, we are going to have an input and one flush port, most likely won't need once we get the dirt washed out.
Empty bog

Forgot to take pictures when we first started, this is hours later.......

We now have our own private beach

The black pipe is currently in the bog, it is finally supposed to rain! and it is raining YEAH!

washing our gravel, we can see the brown water coming out.

 

[addy1]

updates!

of course all areas still have tweaking to do, but the sun came out and it was to hot to stay out there.

The west edge of the pond is now almost done..........
water needs to be brought up to the right level.

before -- the area to the left of the picture.

after -- to the right is the first water fall into the pond

Stream #1

before

after

 

[addy1]

water fall #2
before -- this was a bad bank area

after

Stream #2
before

after

 

[addy1]

water fall #3

before -- this was one of the bad slope areas

after