Two years........ still not active!

Here's a peek at how far along I am.

Enjoy~~~ I know I do

//*-*\
first 2 are left of bridge down and right side heading up.... the header is not in these pic's as it is far from done.

Simply beautiful.

Beautiful!

Oh my goodness, I am coveting your river bottom boulders. Where did you find them.

thanks folks :)

I found my large rocks and boulders here, there and everywhere...woods, lakes, friends farms... that's a lot of hauling in a little 4 banger chevy, but I have been collecting for awhile. Actually I moved all of this from my old house, about 3 miles away, just 2 years ago. Yup! Ripped up the stream..&.pond liners and took all the rocks too. About 5 or so hundred plants as well.

More pictures to come~~~ Sharon, hope you enjoy the front ( 2nd pic) of my last fall into the pond, I believe there are 13 falls in all

This message was edited Sep 28, 2013 4:25 AM

oops did 1 twice I think lol sorry

Hope the waters flow come spring!!

This message was edited Sep 28, 2013 4:28 AM

13 falls?? !!!! I love it!!!

How big is your lot? Who does the maintenance?

Belle

Truly gorgeous EQ. I can hear the birds overhead chattering to themselves and hear the water from your falls. You have built a real haven. I love it!

Looks great....

I have a small country lot 150' x ? 300 with a ridge running across the back yard. My water feature is in the center and there are 2 LOL sledding hills for the little ones,1 on each side.

and it is I, who does the maintenance and construction lol

The birds are wonderful, to many to name ...but I favor the many woodpeckers and hummingbirds..........this week brought out quite a number of the hummingbird moths. I have a mossy rock in the stream which usually sports 3-5 frogs on it..another 3 or so in the pond. And a male garter snake under the bottom fall.I've seen his love but don't know where she lives yet--- did chase her out of the dog pen for her own good lol.

Thanks all.... I wish I could invite you all over to have a nice sit n enjoy with me.
it does make a body feel good

Marie

heres a morning shot





This message was edited Oct 2, 2013 12:33 AM

OOOps sorry did that one...how about a photo of the little pond in the front yard instead

Beautiful Marie.

I will bring muffins! ^_^

I
like
muffins.............lol, that is food right?

this will become the header pond at the top on the hill

a few shots of~~~~

OMG THIS IS GOING TO BE GREAT

the pond has a few deeper holes.... for water lilies and a pond pump ( anyone have a 1800-2000 gph pump they don't want ? cheap lol)
the south side is shallow for the grandkids to play in and maybe a little late night SkinnyD.

The ground below it is damp ( many small spings under there ) and had/has many roots.... so I made my worker friend understand~~~ the hole is only about a foot deep but the pond is being built up on the sides for depth.
I wanted it to look like a plateau. LOL my whole yard slants from the road out front to the bottom of my property out back...except the (hoping it s flat~) place where they built the house. Once he understood (sort of) work began there .. lol wish I had a photo of that mess!

But heres the pond area mostly empty

and of the lower stream

a fairly open look at the stream in progress ... bridge to the side, can you notice the slope?

I like this shot

by the way.... folks do ask to use my gardens for family photos etc.
of course I keep saying its not nearly ready, but they still come.

and my "over the edge" bottom fall viewed from the top

one more, cant resist

Looks great. I really love what you have done and your ideas.

ty carolyn

EQ - I will be looking at shutting down in the next month or so (depending on how soon we into cold weather). When do you think you will be shutting down?

I had a bucket in the shed with water and the top was frozen this morning. The pond is totally ice free yet. I took the flashlight out to look and one gold fish and one koi were sitting in front of the cave entrance where they winter. The ground is all frosty and the greenery that is left is pretty much finished with the frost. I have a couple of lilies coming way late and will probably just pot them up and store them for winter rather than hacking a hole in the dirt. This is the first year I planted tulips in a pot. They are outside getting chilled right now but I will being them in soon for storage. I wanted D to move some crockery pots filled with dirt for me but he has been too busy so I will have to roll them to the end of the path then lift them into the cart. If I don't empty them the soil and water therein will expand and crack them.

We are getting ready too Mary. Not very happy about it. Just brought in my callas and we will soon be cutting back the water plants and getting the pond vacuumed for winter.

I just erased a really obnoxious 'pitty party' for one regarding Laura leaving and winter coming on. I just need to keep planning for next spring (March will be here soon :) ) and work on my knitting and crocheting. And walking Woody more often for both our good.

I should be walking Woody too!

Got my Pondovac 4 and used it. Sucks up sand from bottoms real well but not leaves and I only had a few. Oak leaves are very small so thought it would really suck them up. The 2 or 3 it sucked up blocked it up immediately. My son tried it out also and he wants me to send it back to Fostser & Smith but I guess I'll keep it as it does get sludge and sand out but it needs vacuumimg again already and just did it last weekend. How you only do it twice a year I don't know but it sure wouldn't stay free of leaves and crud that long here. It doesn't both the fish so thats one good thing.
I'm busy now treating a fish my son bought. It's 26" long and 24 pds. and really torn up bad from people chasing them around in the mans pond that had them. My son tripped over a cement block in pond bottom and he thinks fish got hurt on that. I saw him get it out with a fish sock so that certainly didn't do the daamage. I learned a lot about moving large fish. I bought a fish sock right away. The really protects the fish when handling them. No net to get caught up in. I also bought a 150 gal. stock tank Rubbermaid to put her into with meds. Had to cover it all over with screen and bricks but she broke the screen and almost got out so then we covered it with plexiglass and cement blocks. Lord she's strong. She has calmed down and hopefully I can heal her up. We ea. bought 5 large ones cause we got them at a great price. Mine are all butterfly and his are straight sided. Had to sell and give away some to clean out larger pond for them. Now my favorites are back in old pond and doing well. Hopefully they won't catch anything from being in there with her. She has major skin tears on her tail that look awful. Ones on her sides are already doing well. Sometimes I think I'm nuts for doing stuff like this but my son likes her so I am trying. Someday he will build large pond and take them home with him. I got a few picks I put on another thread but hey aren't real good. Very hard to get good pics under trees with all the over flash into the water. Will try again when the sun is just right.
Happy ponding, Bonnie

Bonnie, I don't have that many leaves and those I scoop out with a skimmer. Mostly it is algae and some pea gravel that gets dumped out of the lily pots. I wouldn't think it would do well for leaves. Even Algae can clog the end in the pond (it looks just like a vacuum cleaner nozzle). But it does clean up the bottom of gunk and such really well. Even can vacuum the larger rocks in the deeper end; it is only probably 5x5 on the bottom and no way to clean it short of emptying the pond if it weren't for the vacuum. I am sorry it doesn't do all you wanted. For the expense maybe you should return it?

Bonnie -

Leaves are not our issue so much either - rather surprising when you think of it. There are 2 trees on the one end of the pond. I think most end up in the skimmer like Mary's. We vacuum 2x a year to get the crud so the fish don't spend the winter in it and then when we start up - so the fish have a clean pond for the year. Probably the biggest factor from plants would be the waterlilies.

Do you have a skimmer?

I only have a leaf problem once or twice a year, and I use a net to get them once they sink. The underwater flow moves them all to one corner of the pond. I DO get acorns, which annoy the crud out of me, and also camphor berries, which are also a pain in the behind. I use a net on them too, because both go immediately to the bottom.
Once I get the new pond done, it will move away from the camphor and oak tree, and adopt a sycamore tree, which will have the jumbo brown paper bag sized leaves. I'm assuming they will float longer and be skimmed?

Oberon, for what it will do I have decided to keep it. Getting the crud out of the bottom is great. Just need to do it at least every 2 weeks.
Carolyn, we have skimmers on both ponds and we replaced the face plates that came with them with hardware cloth cause leaves would go in and block up pumps plus fish were going in and couldn't get out and died in there so we cured that problem.
When the oaks shed they really shed. I will try netting both ponds this year but if it doesn't work as Mary does I will scoop twice a day again. Oh the joys of ponding.
However, they are worth the effort. Heck wouldn't want to be bored now would we.
I've learned many factors affect a pond. Water source, plantings around pond, type of trees around pond, wind born debris etc. etc.
Before I had top of our pool enclosure repaired I had huge sycamore leaves that floated for a while and then settled on the bottom. I hate that tree but Charlie put it in backyard years ago and its still there unfortunately. We had just a couple of tears but thats all it took to let them blow in. Glad they can't now.

Bonnie, I can't figure out how you can have so much crud in the bottom that you have to clean it out every 2 weeks? I know that I fight algae and could just scream at how it covers the walls and bottom but I have no shade at all. I am forewarned and forearmed this year. I bought a few gallons of Algaway 5.4 to being early in the year before it gets to Jurraisic (phew on spelling) proportions.

We are only vacuuming twice a year too -

Bonnie - are you vacuuming because of leaves or are you vacuuming because of crud? One thing that works well on the crud is the Pondzyme with Barley. It has enzymes that eat the crud. We buy it in the fall because it is less expensive. I found a great deal for it on Amazon this year.

I must remember that for when I need something again. Ponzyme with Barley. Will look it up. Thanks Carolyn

My main problem is leaves and debris that blows in. I use pondzym and have for years. I dread when winter really gets here and the leaves start to really fall. I hate to but I am going to net them with bird netting and if that doesn't work I'm going to get deer netting. It has very small openings,.
My ponds are right near a highly used road and I think the cars blow sand into ponds when flying by even tho it is paved blacktop. Vac does get that stuff out very well but can't let it go a whole year. I would have a sandpile. When I emptied them and pressure washed them there was always a pile of sand in the middle which I had to vac. out with wet/dry shop vac. I'm hopeing I won't have to empty the ponds completely now that I can vacuum them if water quality stays good. At least its oak trees which have very small leaves. Both ponds are under same oak tree as it is huge. I raised it from a little spring and now its above the power lines. Power co. workers prune it hard every 3 years and it looks awful but thats their rules. Grows back gracefully.
Will check on Amazon for pondzyme.
Thanks Carolyn
Happy????ponding!!!!

that is really strange. Sand dumping into the pond?? Weird.

It does sound like the crud from the road, dust and what not. Bonnie - what concerns me about that is any chemicals that would come with the dust - cars deposit oils, gasoline and whatnot into the road, which will be picked up by the dust.

So far, though, Bonnie - you haven' really had any problems with your water quality or any mass fish death. So it sounds like you are handling it.

Shoot. Hadn't even thought about that - stuff that is thrown off from cars. Oil, anti-freeze leaks. Oh, I forgot. You don't have anti-freeze in Florida. lol. But I think anti-freeze is also used to keep cars from over heating also. Can't quite figure out how it goes both ways.