Pond Construction, Continued

Hole perfected, plumbing in place, underlayment down, liner in place, and now waiting for 2 palettes of stone to be delivered later today. That's when the real fun begins!

I still had time to plant a few pots for the front porch this weekend :)

the falls filter leveled and slightly tilted forward

another falls view

the skimmer with pumps inside

underlayment and skimmer

underlayment down and liner ready to be placed 

just some of the mountains of materials

lava rock for the filter media

UV light in place

I think it looks like a military weapon!

using the backhoe to carefully move the liner
to the pond location -- that sucker is heavy!!

underlayment

thanks to several friends and family: the liner is roughly placed!

now ready for rocks and adjustment!

Pond Construction

Last year we constructed our dream home, and this year we are working on our dream landscape. Jim has been busy moving topsoil and grading the lawn, and we have also been busy getting our new koi pond up and running.

Last fall I drew up the plans and conferred with Rich from Hahn Ponds about what we need to order. Hahn's is an amazing place, and Rich is extremely knowledgeable and helpful. A few weeks ago we finally dug the hole, measured multiple times, and then tweaked our order with Rich. Now we have all the equipment sitting in our garage, ready to be installed --- hopefully this weekend.

I am so glad we waited until now to put the pond in rather than rush it last fall. We ended up moving the location to the other side of the sunroom where it will be right in the heart of our outdoor entertainment area and visible not only from the sunroom but also from the dining room and the man cave/garage. I started by laying out a garden hose and playing around with the placement, and once we settled on a plan (the capacity ended up being the same as was our original plan) Jim used paint to outline it and began digging with the backhoe.

Then there was rock removal and fine-tuning the levels, from the deepest areas for protection from predators and winter ice, all the way to the shallower edges for marginal plants. Now we are ready to place the underlayment and liner, and set up the skimmer and filter. This is so exciting! Both Mom and I have had ponds for several years, so we both know what we liked and what our dream pond would be, and this IS IT.

Our goal is to have our fish out of their winter troughs in the garage and into the sunshine and fresh water by the end of this memorial Day weekend. Landscaping the pond will take all summer and even years to come, but that's the easy part :)

let the digging begin!

Jim is in his glory when he is using any piece of equipment

lots of rocks to move

Bumble investigates

Willow checks it out

smoothed and leveled

Bum making sure the levels are level

man cave door

Rich and his employee cutting the liner

some of the "parts"

LBGs!

Little Baby Goats - or "LBGs" as coined by our sweet friend - are selected and will be arriving on site in late June and early July!!! I cannot wait.

LBG shopping is all about Googling and Googling and Googling, contacting farms and meeting new people via e-mail, pouring over hundreds of photos of beautiful goats and their humongous udders, checking out the stud-ly bucks, trying to balance flash with quality, attempting to keep the driving distance under a six hours, trying to avoid $500 doelings without feeling cheap, coordinating the timing with my summer vacation, and finally MAKING FINAL DECISIONS. After you think you have a plan and reservation then the momma goat has only bucklings. Back to square one.

I will not lie: I love every single second of LBG shopping. Literally I will close my eyes at night and see goats and kids and udders (the udders I find to be a little disturbing - they look painfully large - but I guess I need to grow up and put my farmer shoes on). It's a commitment if you want to do it right, and even then it's a crapshoot. Then there's the waiting: waiting to hear back from the busy breeder, waiting for them to send photos, waiting for website updates, waiting for the kidding itself, w  a  i  t   i  n  g    for the baby to be    w  e  a  n  e  d  ...   ... ........

I found two amazing doelings! Two gorgeous doelings are currently busy "growing up" so they can leave their mommas and join our farm this summer. WeberWood Acres Annabelle and RebelWood GJ Butternut are from great lines of high quality milk producers, and they will become our "foundation" does. 'A beautiful tricolored stunner, and an adorable gold and white sweetheart. I am still partially looking for a black and white doeling with blue eyes - Jim doesn't know that yet but I'm sure he will be okay with it :) If one happens along then great, but I am not combing the countryside for her.

So it is official: I am going to go from "I have pet goats" to "I breed goats". Of course that means I will have many more hooves to trim, so I invested in a milking stand. Jim is not a carpenter, so I shopped around and found a very well-made and reasonable at Fire Fly Farms Woodworking.

**5.14.14 Update: We will now be adding a third (and final - I swear, Jim!) doeling this summer: black and white, blue-eyed beauty RebelWood GJ Desert Bramble!! **

photo of milk stand from the Fire Fly Farm site