Sunday evening, 20 September 2015
It's been a great week. September has been beautiful!
This past week I sanded the walls of the pond and chiseled out the spots where there was potential for leakage. It took two days to complete. Then on Wednesday I applied the epoxy coating on the walls and a few spots on the floor that looked like they might leak. I used Pond Armor, http://www.pondarmor.com/, specifically designed for swimming pools and fish ponds - thicker than molasses in the can, it is thinned with denatured alcohol and a LOT of mixing, almost no odor, and when thinned properly flows like oil based paint.
Thursday evening I started adding water, about 500 gallons every day, amounting to about 6 inches of depth. Today, Sunday, we have a bit more than 3 feet of water in the pond and everything looks water tight. We went to the city (Rapid City) on Friday, at Jolly Lane Greenhouse we picked up some duck weed, a water cabbage and an umbrella plant, the duckweed is kind of ugly but the fish will enjoy eating it.
The pond will be full on Tuesday and then time to commission the pump and filter system. So with some luck we will have fish in the pond by next weekend.
The front entry has been sort of a pass through, but all of a sudden with the water in the pond there exists an invitation to linger. Carol loves the way the water reflects the sunlight onto the wall. We are so excited to get the fish into the pond... not sure what they will think, they have been living in a stock watering tank for 5 years.
As the pond filling takes about an hour I have been enjoying the nice weather and working on the landscape next to the front door, an area about 20' x 30', between the front door and the large rock out cropping and the west wall of the master bedroom suite. I taught myself to build dry stacked masonry walls - these retaining walls line the "moat", a drainage channel around the north and west side of the house. Earlier this summer I started digging out the NW corner of the master bedroom suite, exposing rock and creating a 4-foot wide pathway around the north side of the master bedroom. I set up retaining walls there and we planted some hydrangea bushes and lamium. I set up a soaker hose on a timer, so the plants are doing well. Still an active project.
Monday
I worked on the landscaping again today, finished the moat along the west side of the master bedroom suite. With the tractor I relocated a couple tons of loose rock to be used for the construction of the moat wall along the north side of the house. And then bladed the area smooth. Carol started staining the cedar trim on the front entry.
Yet to come, move big slabs of rock for a walking path.
Van
