"Drooling" seemed like the most appropriate term for the half-vast way the water would curl way underneath before releasing.
I'm not going to install a huge pump just to overpower the drool effect. We've spent years reducing our household electric consumption. We're ecologists first. Ponding is down the list a ways.
addy, we have access to lots of river rock and can find fairly large skipper type stones. Since I geared up for some masonry work to get to this point I also have a 4.5" grinder with diamond wheel and a 7" diamond wheel for our worm-drive Skilsaw. So I could manipulate skipper rocks to fit together, or fit tightly into corners, or what have you. Do you have any pics of your falls?
I think I'll experiment some more this winter, and maybe leave the falls unfinished.
I'm also thinking about making some concrete forms. The idea here is to mimic something I saw all over the place in San Jose CA during the 60's and 70's. Seems like everyone had the little concrete bowls in their yards, going for the Japanese gardening look. The bowls had a pitcher spout molded into them. The spout tilted downward to make the water speed up, and they had a sharp lip on the underside to help the water release. I'm thinking that they might have even been more effective after a thin layer of slippery algae formed.
All a person would need is some scraps of plywood, some sandy soil to use as a mold bed, and a few sacks of Quikcrete. The first few might be duds, but I think you'd learn quickly. Several years ago I made some bowls for a very small pond. They were amateurish looking, but they worked and they've lasted for years without cracking/leaking. I've also made some bird baths by just scraping out a spot in the sand, pouring some mud with a little bit of chicken wire thrown in, then gently washing the cement as it's starting to cure to expose some of the aggregate. The bird baths have also held up for years.
