and MORE Pond Construction

Dirty water pumped out -- looks like it's a go for filling after work today!

my croc is sitting there as a scale reference :)

from the dining room window

Willow inspects from the sunroom

Pond Construction Progress

rainy window view

filling with water to clean the rocks

4 hours with 2 hoses to fill it completely

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"

Backyard & Woods

One of the best parts of the property are the spectacular woods, filled with huge maple, oak, cherry, ash, elm and beech trees. Unfortunately some need to be cleared directly behind the house so that our walk-out basement can be graded down, and to remove potential house-crushing "leaners". Right now it looks like a disaster, but we have the "vision" and know it will be beautiful!

Here is a panorama from approximately where the koi pond will be, looking east to south to west: