Lmst

And this my friends is why our #pandemicpond and #poolpond will never, ever, be connected to the house water system! Directly or with a ‘sensor' system, never. Ever.

If the pond looks a little low... you top it up from a rain barrel, or a tap... or you let it go low and wait for rain.

$6000 water bill is INSANE. Our quarterly bill is usually under $150 in the winter and under $300 in the summer months.

#water #waste #pond #DIY #gardening
https://cheknews.ca/saanich-couple-hit-with-nearly-6000-water-bill-after-hidden-leak-1290221/

I don't think I have twisted off the cap for the cleanout since I bought the whole assembly... 5months? I only slid the end into the pipe in August so hadn't needed to screw off the cap. It took some leverage/persuasion to turn it.

But I was successful, and now the big filter can be drained. The water was actually higher than the bottom of the cap but no big deal, it's not really under any pressure.

#poolpond #diy #backyardproject #portalberni #gardening #pondlife

looking down into some gravel with some fallen brown leaves in the middle of the picture is a open 4 inch pipe with water nearly at the top of it and a smaller corrugated pipe and electrical cable going down in. There is a red handled pipe wrench beside and the cap is just above it.

emptied the pond overnight. We have had so much rain this past month! All are full. I am going to drain it all and keep it drained until I get the pumps wired and can habe them installed and running. Don't want the water to get stale and unhealthy.

I think I might hire a stone mason to build the wall.

moving the pump into the intake bay now. It should be empty by the time I am back from the day's ceremonies.

#poolpond #diy #backyardproject #portalberni #gardening #pondlife

yesterday afternoon before I put the pump in the pond it was full to the brim with plenty of leaves floating on the surface.

this morning pond is a large empty hole again with some rocks, layered and piled along the side lots of leaves

#pandemicpond and #poolpond (sort of) update!
After the substantial completion of the new fence and new front gate I had to do a little recovery work on the front pond to restore its overflow. The builders skillfully augered two post holes between the buried wire for the 120V outlet, the pond wire and piping, the back of the pond lining, and the buried drainage pipe!

Very well done.

It left a bit of a clay earth mess but I took the opportunity to fully bury the larger pipe that I installed last summer (2024) so that’ll keep it warmer this winter and cooler next summer. I rescued the little rock flowers and replanted them with a bit of new and old rock. There was already a birdie back in the pond for a bath before I even finished! @stephanie

The process ended up washing in some silt, so the pond is murky now, but I took the opportunity to flush one of the bog barrels for the first time since installing them last year. Not enough water in the rain barrel to flush both so I’ll do that next weekend if we get some rain. A wheelbarrow full of cedar woodchips would be good too.

Oh I also put pea-gravel around the base of the posts nearest the pond so there was no dirt up against them. Should keep them drier and rot-free.

Feel like we’re slowly nearing a stable end point for all the projects!

#garden #home #today #PortAlberni

A picture of a post in the ground near the end of a pond. This is before the front gate was completed. You can see that the ground has been fully disturbed. There is not much left of the outlet that used to have rocks at the end of the pond. There are a few bushes around The Post as well.

After completing the work, the pipe from the pump has been buried and concealed underneath of black fabric cloth. It goes underneath the bottom of the fence. This picture is close to the ground, looking from the concrete pathway edge towards the end of the pond that is lined with flat rocks. There’s a small bush to the left.

Looking down under the arbour gate, you can see the finished rock outlet of the pond has been cleaned and reset with rocks underneath the newly built harbour in the gate

A wide view of the two Ponds in the front yard, shows the murky water in the sunlight of the afternoon

The new fence is basically done!!
Funny story that will hit home to anyone on Vancouver Island:

Two days ago the builders hadn’t added the new top section to the big gate in the back. A very large buck/deer jumped the fence and bent the wire so they had to try and bend it back out the best they could”

This is particularly funny for us because the other side, near the chicken coop (before it was there) the old fencing was bent from an over-eager bear trying to climb in.

Just mother nature ensuring balance, new and old, bent and unbent.

I am glad we are now bylaw-compliant for the #poolpond and the edibles should be out of the reach of the larger animals (racoons and birds and cats and squirrels and whatever other small creatures are inescapable)

The arbutus tree is now leaning against the fence. We'll see if it gets the message and grows in a more vertical kind of way naturally relieving stress from the fence, or if we might have to provide in a portal.

The most surprising part they managed to conquer was lifting the grape as high as they did! Very satisfied with that development!
#animals #garden #deer #PortAlberni

A tall wire fence extends into the distance beside a cement pathway beside a white house

A look toward a side gate with a large round hole in the top of the gate. Above and in front of the gate is a grape fine that travel up and across the path before going up the side of the house.

A young arbutus tree lens against the new fence reaching for the sky!

Fresh wood is added to the top of the fencing to make it taller.

some closeups provided by my lovely partner-in-crime.

We made a gap for the arbutus tree to grow into :)

New fence posts always remind me of soldiers when they have the supports holding them up.

#PoolPond #Fence #BackyardProject

A young arbutus tree pokes out from behind a fence post

A row of posts line the side between two houses

Two large round holes waiting for cement and posts for the front gate. They are very near the front pond.

Looking down the south side of the fence, more fence posts are propped up waiting for cement. These posts already have fencing in them as there is existing plants on the fence.

There be posts!
They're going to reuse part of the back fence and both gates there since they are still in good shape. The bare posts look so gigantic. lol. The finished fence will be 6.5-7ft... but who wouldn't want a 10ft wall of wire lol

Looks like the pond gained about 12 inches of water over the past few days of rain. I had mostly emptied it on Sunday.
#PoolPond #Fence #BackyardProject

A capture from the webcam shows the backyard. There are new tall yellow cedar posts standing in regular intervals along the perimeter.
The pond has bout 1ft of water in it.

got home in the dark last night and left in the dark this morning but there has been #poolpond progress in my absence!

The fence builders started!

They augered post holes. They managed to not cut any pipes or wires in the frontyard pond... the holes are BIG.

Glad the fence is happening though. The rains have come with a vengeance and the ponds are filling fast! I wil feel much better knowing no one can get into the yard and be in danger of falling in.
#building #portalberni #diy #gardening

A gaping hole in the dark of the morning. It is a large round hole beside a cement path. There is a tree branch visible with small leaves. The scene is dimly lit.

Had to detach some of the existing fencing from the posts so we can keep it without losing any of the greenery already establsihed.

Now that that is done. BASEBALL ⚾️

go Jays!!

and as I type... GRAND SLAM
#poolpond i #grandslam #mlb #bluejays #toronto #canada

a look out from the diamond at skydome in toronto

A little rearranging in the backyard to get stuff away from the fence lines. Builders coming on Wednesday for our new 6.5ft fence and gates!!! Eeee!!

(must keep kids out per-water-bylaw, and also discourage the munchy deer friends!)

A little rainy while I worked but it was nice. :)

Also took out the top of the tall white pipe. The joint is only 2 inches below the rocks. No one will melt having to unscrew the top with their hand in water. :+)
#DIY #PoolPond #BackyardProject #Home #Today

Today's #poolpond progress building the inner rock wall. Rock stacking. 🪨 🪨 🪨
#diy #backyardProject #pondlife #rocks

where I left off last week. Just the far end was mostly full up to 3/4. Leas along the wall of the pool

End of day today. Rearranged in a few places, but much higher along the sides.

Looking from above, the foot of the rock wall now comes to about the halfway point in the pond. There are also large rocks around the base of the return pipes.

Looking from the far end you can see the full height of the rick wall on the right taking shape.

All rocks that are to be moved today have been moved. There are still more but that will be for another day.

Almost got the back wall and stairs done!
#poolpond #diy #backyardProject #watergarden #pond #pondlife

A rock wall along the end of the pond goes about 3/4 of the way up the height of the pond.

pick up a rock
clean a rock
move a rock
place a rock
pick up a rock
clean a rock
move a rock
place a rock
#poolpond #diy #backyardProject #watergarden #pond #pondlife

the first of three identical shots with rocks being set against the pond liner on the far end of the pond. There are two or three layers of rocks.

Same picturw bow with 3 or 4 layers and stretching closer to the camera on the sides. The rocks also come uo below the yellow milk crate

More rocks up to 4 deep all the way around the bottom of the pond.

2/2 Then it was time to decide exactly how to create the manifold to direct the return water back into the pond or into the filter. I decided that I wanted the manifold to be well within the pond liner in case anything was leaking so I cut the black tube and extended the PVC to meet it into the main area of the pond.

One valve goes to the bottom return sprayers. One valve goes to what will be sprayers along the long edge of the pond. And the last valve allows water to go into the filter.

Note to self: at least one of these valves must be open at all times if I don't want to blow up the pump :-)

#poolpond #diy #backyardProject #watergarden #pond #pondlife

I'll look at the finished manifold shows three valves. They are bright red. The black hose comes from them intake, bay, and curls to back towards the main pond. It enters the manifold which then splits it into two returns into the main pond and one that goes to the filter around the tree.

Looking from the other end of the pond towards manifold, you can see the piping of white PVC angled down into the bottom of the pond

Head on view of the manifold, shows the pipe coming up out of the bottom of the pond into the manifold and under pipe coming down and stopping about 1/3 of the way down. This will go towards the right and come around the top portion of the pond, but all underwaterto provide sprayers on the other side.

1/2 It feels like forever since I was working on the pond, even though it's only been a week.

The bottom plumbing is now officially done. I drilled holes into the intake pipe for the main pond return pump.

Then I used some 3-D printed replicas of the fittings to go onto the pump to hook it up.

#poolpond #diy #backyardProject #watergarden #pond #pondlife

A picture of the perforated PVC pipe lying on a bed of gravel at the bottom of the pond. This is buried underneath the gravel.

I am holding in my hand, a 3-D printed replica of the fitting that goes onto the pump and allows a 2 inch black PVC pipe to Connect.

A look at the yellow milk crate that houses the second pump which is inside of the main pond. it is positioned about halfway up the side of the pond in a small recess in the wall. There is a black hose that comes up from the bottom of the pond into the crate and connects to the pump through a small hole. There are round rocks inside the crate, weighing it down and keeping thepump secure. There is a black pipe, curling up from the crate that is attached to the top of the pump and takes the water away and towards the main filter pond.

Thank god it wasn't too hot today (only 27°C). It still felt like a million degrees in the hole as I pulled and shifted and adjusted the pond liner so it would lay flush against all the contours of the hole and gradually locked it in place with the gravel.

All the gravel bottom is in. The bottom plumbing fixtures are set. And I even managed to start playing with how the stairs might look/work.

I ran out of steam after shoveling/hauling/spreading the last load of gravel 🥵 🪏 🪨
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #pondlife

The pool pond has gravel in the bottom now. There is a line of rocks along the edge closest to the camera before it goes down into the hole.

Looking down at the bottom stair. The yellow crate for the second pump is sticking into the side of the pond. on the far side. On the near side we see two lines of larger rocks arranged along the edge of the pond and bottom stair with gravel surrounding them.

a closeup of the bottom stair with four rocks along the bottom of the pond edge and four more along the stair edge. The pond liber has lots of creases and edges as it has not been pulled tight.

Progress.
Attachments and hose lengths made final for the second pump. Caps drilled with holes for each return bottom outlet. Three loads of gravel dumped into the #poolpond for the floor. Then I realized there was a section of the wall near the yellow crate that was not actually touching the inner wall, meaning there was a gap. Not good. But the sun has broken through the morning fog so it’s too hot in the hole now to fix it. Will have to wait until Labour Day!

This weekend is the 1 year anniversary of renting the digger to make the holes! I am about where I figured I would be one year later :)
#backyardProject #diy #pond #pondlife #gardenpond

A view from Labour Day 2024. Shows the digger sitting behind the freshly dug pool pond hole.

A current photo shows the ponds empty. With the liners exposed.

A close-up of me holding to 2 inch pipe caps drilled with many small holes. In the background is the bottom of the pond. The hose from the second pump is visible going down into the bottom of the pond from the yellow crate

Along view of the newly emptied pond shows pebble spread over about 1/3 of the bottom of the hole covering some of the pipe for the sprayers

Now that we have had our brief bit of fun with the #poolpond, it’s time to drain it so work on completing it can continue! It took just over 12 hours for my little spare pond pump to empty the main pond of about 80% of its water.

It will be empty by morning. I will empty the filter and intake bay as well just to clean everything out. The movement of the past couple weeks through the system will have loosened up a bunch of the gunk still on the various rocks in the filter so a full pump out should remove all that.

I will then concentrate on finishing the piping in the bottom of the main pond for the intake for the second pond and the “periscope” for the bottom returns.

Then I can work on building the rock wall to line the inside of the pond. Or at least experimenting to see if it will work at all!

If it *does* work and I have enough rock to at least start on the bottom layers of the inside wall, then I’ll be able to achieve another milestone: placing the final pebble on the bottom. Important, because that will prevent any groundwater from infiltrating and causing the rubber liner to bubble out.

Really really want to get past that mark before the autumn rains come! For obvious reasons! ☔️

Other jobs that need to be done before winter:

- finish the manifold for the second pump to distribute water to the sprayers and filter and figure out how and where to house and conceal it.

- Dig the electrical trench from the house all the way around the long side of the pond to the back tool shed so we can start wiring it in.

- Clipping the wires on the pumps and adding extension wire to them so they can reach said electrical supplies.

- permanently shore up/modify the borders of the ponds where they were found to be low.

- make a few other minor terraforming modifications for the stream and some of the edges so the water goes a little more where I want it to and a little less where I don’t.
#poolpond #backyardProject #portalberni #ponds #watergarden

A look into the main depression of the pond. The water is a few feet down from the top. The bottom is clearly visible.

managed to convince the little pump I am using to empty the ponds to get water all the way over to the 1000 L water tank to use for watering everything while we are on restrictions

Turned the big pump on low. It's now at 23 W at 35%. Stream still flows nicely.

#pondlife #poolPond #BackyardProject #water