Slow - but sure - progress!

[bagsmom]

Wow! I should've hired you to do my pond renovation!!

You'd better wait till I build my first pond before you say that!

 

[bagsmom]

@bagsmom BTW, the reciprocating saw also does a bang-up job on giant clay-clods! Just like the roots,you can chop them in place which might be good if you didn't want to undermine the soil in a particular spot. But be sure to clean the saw well after using it on soil. Esp on dry dirt, there will be a lot of fine dirt.

Oooo -- good to know!

 

[Gemma]

You'd better wait till I build my first pond before you say that!

I bet anything even at your first try, you'll do a better job than this expert (moron) I hired!

 

[peter hillman]

I know rock work will be labor intensive too, but I'm looking forward to it!

That's great! I've reworked my rock work more than once to get what I wanted, yea it's work, but it's a fun work!

 

[moby]

So in the US you can't have an unfenced pond over 2 ft deep in your front gardens....correct? Wow, here in the UK we have no restrictions like that. I have no gates on my drive so am open to the road with my pond in the front garden. If a trespasser wanders into it, well, they shouldn't be on my property uninvited in the first place! I would sue them for damage to my pond and surrounds! The neighbours can object to a pond too? Sorry to ask, just curious about these different US rules.....so apologies to the OP for straying off topic.

 

[bagsmom]

I think the rules and regulations vary depending on what state or city you live in. Some places are pickier than others. I suspect the question of neighbors being annoyed is more a matter of courtesy and avoiding unpleasant conflict.
I think in many places, anything deeper than two feet falls under the same restrictions as swimming pools, which have to be fenced in for safety.
To tell you the truth, I'm more worried about our goofy neighborhood deer falling in. They cruise around the back and front yard and sometimes jump from my neighbor's yard down to mine.
No apologies needed for me! I am the worst about drifting off topic and such!

 

[sissy]

it depends where you live here I am considered county and no rules on ponds .To many huge ponds out here for them to worry about my pond any ways .Even in the city a pond can be built any where as long as you have enough space between you and the neighbor and if there are children that they be protected from getting near the pond .Most in the city who have them are in there fenced in back yard .You can't trust people throwing something in the pond just to be funny .Some people can be pretty stupid .There was one on the news that caught his neighbor pouring bleach in the pond over the fence .He was charged with animal cruelty .Didn't help the fish they all died .

 

[bagsmom]

it depends where you live here I am considered county and no rules on ponds .To many huge ponds out here for them to worry about my pond any ways .Even in the city a pond can be built any where as long as you have enough space between you and the neighbor and if there are children that they be protected from getting near the pond .Most in the city who have them are in there fenced in back yard .You can't trust people throwing something in the pond just to be funny .Some people can be pretty stupid .There was one on the news that caught his neighbor pouring bleach in the pond over the fence .He was charged with animal cruelty .Didn't help the fish they all died .

How sad!
I am lucky my neighbor is a wild and wacky animal lover. She adores all critters unconditionally!
Sissy -- I was noticing your dog picture. If those are your dogs, do they ever get in your pond?
We have a border collie a few doors down and she has been known to go on wild tears all down the block. One time she got in my compost bin and ate a horrible bunch of old salad and went home and threw up! She's nuts. I wonder if she will feel the need to go swimming?

 

[sissy]

those are 2 pitbulls and they are my sons and he lives back in NJ now .I just lost my rescue pitbull and still have my 2 chihuahuas ,king arthur passed away July 27 th .My pond is by my front porch and chi.s do not run loose ,but they do have a fenced in back yard ,which now they refuse to go out there with out us .King arthur always went out first to make sure that the chi's were safe from foxes and other animals .

 

[dpowell]

So in the US you can't have an unfenced pond over 2 ft deep in your front gardens....correct? Wow, here in the UK we have no restrictions like that. I have no gates on my drive so am open to the road with my pond in the front garden. If a trespasser wanders into it, well, they shouldn't be on my property uninvited in the first place! I would sue them for damage to my pond and surrounds! The neighbours can object to a pond too? Sorry to ask, just curious about these different US rules.....so apologies to the OP for straying off topic.

Yeah, welcome to the land of the litigious! If a thief breaks a leg tripping over something while he's stealing you blind, he can sue the homeowner. The requirement to fence is dependent on city/county codes and is meant to prevent a wandering child from falling in and drowning.

 

[bagsmom]

those are 2 pitbulls and they are my sons and he lives back in NJ now .I just lost my rescue pitbull and still have my 2 chihuahuas ,king arthur passed away July 27 th .My pond is by my front porch and chi.s do not run loose ,but they do have a fenced in back yard ,which now they refuse to go out there with out us .King arthur always went out first to make sure that the chi's were safe from foxes and other animals .

I'm sorry about King Arthur! I know your chihuahuas miss him too!

 

[moby]

Yes, I completely understand about little ones wandering into a garden and a horror occurring. Most gardens are I dare say enclosed to some extent in the UK, in the towns and cities anyway, not all are gated and no one is made to actually fence around a pond. I'm very rural, the few children that have lived around here didn't go on walkabout anyway. Our own children and grandchildren have been kept safely in the back gardens whilst little, they now are of an age to respect the ponds dangers....that said I've had 26 stray Guernsey cows destroy my front lawns, they didn't respect my grass at all, or my plants or borders, but luckily none stumbled into the linered pond :-/

 

[bagsmom]

I've often wondered about the cows and sheep that graze in the countryside of the UK. So you have had a few visitors, have you? I am lucky -- as I said, our house is up on a hill, quite a ways from the sidewalk. You have to make a real effort to get up to where the pond will be. Since I am a stay-at-home-mom, and working out in the yard is my hobby, I am almost always around to keep an eye on things.
I am exhausted now. Went outside for a few hours and fought the clay boulder and the big tree root. I am victorious! LOL. Dug around the root more so I could get in there with the pruning saw. Can you believe my laziness is so specific that I was willing to use the hand saw -- but too lazy to go down and around back to get the reciprocating saw and big extension cord? I'm a weirdo. But I got that root!
I tried digging around the clay boulder more. It is a huge deposit of what I will call "hardpan" although that is probably a term only appropriate to the southwest. Whatever the proper term, it is orange and black concrete, with layers of white crystalline stuff in between. So horrible. I got the sledgehammer and just started whacking the crud out of it! If fractured enough for me to reach in and wiggle out moveable hunks. I had an entire big wheel barrow full!!!!!!
Now it's lunchtime!!!!!!!

 

[Mmathis]

@bagsmom It's too bad you can't haul that huge clay boulder off somewhere in the yard and whenever you need to take out your frustrations on something, just hammer away! And I know what you mean about the saw. Sometimes, it can be more work to get the tools out; set them up; then put them back up -- than to just do it by hand [well, depending on the job]!

 

[bagsmom]

@bagsmom It's too bad you can't haul that huge clay boulder off somewhere in the yard and whenever you need to take out your frustrations on something, just hammer away! And I know what you mean about the saw. Sometimes, it can be more work to get the tools out; set them up; then put them back up -- than to just do it by hand [well, depending on the job]!

I don't know if hammering the boulder on a regular basis would be a good idea or not. The whole time I was doing it, I kept thinking -- I'm out here alone. I need to be careful. I could slip in this hole and sledgehammer my foot. Or drop the hammer on my head. (I'm not incredibly graceful!) As it was, I totally fell down. Did one of those slow-motion, ballet-gone-wrong sort of moves. I had the shovel wedged under the edge of part of the boulder and gave a mighty heave. It gave more easily than I expected and whooooaaaaa -- there I went.

I may go ahead and order my pond kit tomorrow!!!!!!! I am at sort of a standstill now, until I have the waterfall and plumbing stuff to lay everything out. I'm excited!!!!!!!