July 8, 1998: We picked up the liner Monday, and had no idea it was going to be that awkward and heavy! We finally got it unloaded from the truck, and realized we would definately need help in laying it in the pond. We made arrangements for some friends to come help Wednesday (these guys have actually been begging to come help! Weird, huh?) Anyways, Monday night we got over 2" of rain. All of the sand ended up in the deep part of the hole. After over a month of intense heat and no rain, who would have dreamed? We spent all day getting the pond reworked. Thank God for sump pumps! Of course, the forecast predicted rain again Tuesday night. So off to the dumpster at the nearby carpet store for old carpet scraps to line the pond. We found out (the hard way) that sand alone will eventually work it's way down, and so we decided to use both sand and carpet. Since hindsight is always better than foresight, if we ever build another pond, we will not use sand on the sides. More hassle than it's worth. Anyway, my dad got off work at midnight. Since he owns the local tavern, he persuaded a couple regulars (with a free beer!) to come over after closing to help us get the liner in before the next rain. We got it in with relatively little trouble. I would definately suggest putting your liner in after dark. With a couple of halogen lights we could see without any problem, and there wasn't any danger of burning ourselves on the liner - and it does get hot in the sun! We turned the hose on long enough to get the 3 1/2 foot mostly filled, and by this time it was almost 3:00 am, so we called it a night. Wednesday morning we turned the hose back on, and 8 hours later it was full! We used 5110 gallons to fill that big hole - next months water bill is not going to be cheap! *L*
July 10, 1998: Yesterday we played around with the rock edging for awhile. During the hottest part of the day we decided to run to Wichita to purchase some water plants so we can start getting the water ready for fish. We purchased 2 bunches of cabomba (all the nursery had so we got it for free since that was what I really wanted), 4 bunches of hornwort, 4 water lettuce, and a handfull of duckweed. It looks kind of pathetic in our pond, since it doesn't cover much at all. Friends have promised lilies and hycinath, and I ordered several plants from Aqua-Mart which carries the best prices on plants I have yet to see (other than the free ones!). Today we went and purchased river rock to put in and around the pond. The best advice I can give you on purchasing river rock is to shop around! I called several rock quarries and landscape nurseries, and prices ranged from $45 a ton to $90, and that was for the small stuff! Not counting delivery carges! Being the persistant kind (and extrememly cheap! *L*), I kept calling and found it for $15.50 a ton for the small stuff, and $18.50 for egg rock. We picked up a load in our truck today, and it looks so cool! I figure we need 3 more tons of egg rock, and 1 ton of the small stuff. We plan on going around the outside edges of the pond to help hide the liner as well as fill in some of those edging rocks so we don't have to be so picky in getting them to fit together correctly.
We discovered also that we should have planned where our pump and filter were going to go before we dug the hole, as well as purchased the container for the pump and filter. The area where we are going to put the rubbermaid container is not the ideal setting I would have chosen had I known. It is right in front of the patio, but we are going to bury it. I am planning to make a cover for it out of two pieces of plywood (so it won't be too heavy to lift). I'll then silicone river rock to the top to camouflage it. Some plants around the edge should hide it well as well as provide easy access. I'll let you know if this works!
Lucky for me, when hubby decided to start slinging the riverrock into the pond I jumped in, artfully dodging his shovel fulls of rock, and pulled out all of my plants. Did you know that water gardening is totally different than putting stuff in the ground? I didn't! Nothing stays where you put it, and I chased water lettuce all over the pond! I put it in a cooler with cool water to hold it until hubby got finished. Just as I got the last of my plants in the cooler, the clouds started getting really dark. Hubby's pager went off, and the weather watchers said we had sever storms coming with 80 mph winds. I pulled my cooler of plants into the house & frantically gathered all of my pretties and container plants. Well, the electricity went off, the winds came, the metal grain elevator on the next block flew by in pieces, and I spent the next 2 hours frantically looking out the window at my pond! Is this an addicting hobby or what! *L* As soon as the rains let up and the lightning ceased, I went out to survey the damage. I pulled a couple small branches out of the pond, and other than being really full and very murkey, it survived fine. My beautiful flower garden was laying flat on the ground. My hole for the foundation was overflowing. It hasn't dried out enough for us to lay in the framework and fill with cement. As well as that holds water, maybe I should forego putting in another room and just build another pond!
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