ATP's Front Yard Pond!

[ATP]

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh YOU are missing a step my good man you want to hand tamp the horizontals and if a lot of shale sticking out use a hammer and a 2x to lay 2x against the wall and hit the 2x walls are lesser of a risk then is the floors but still need to spend some time on them. 8 oz is pretty tough. use weiss sheers / scissors to cut it or make sure you have new utility blades

Great advice as usual. I will do this. Hopefully the wall dont crumble to pieces.

 

[combatwombat]

I went out a night with a headlamp and did it. Great little tool! I have used it a lot on this buildView attachment 149072. I got the detector too and mainly use that during the day. I am sure I will find many more uses for it, my wife already borrowed to hang some pictures.

Nice. If my cheap Harbor Freight laser goes out, I’ll spring for a better one with green light. Receiver + 2x2 grading stick has been a huge time saver and mistake avoider. Makes it so much easier to “see” your elevations. My whole setup was maybe $120 and so worth it.

 

[GBBUDD]

Get a 1/2 inch clear tube and make a cheap water level you don't need to worry about the sub

 

[GBBUDD]

Get a 1/2 inch clear tube and make a cheap water level you don't need to worry about the sun

 

[ATP]

Planning to have some help tomorrow to get the liner in the pond. In the meantime with the threat of showers I have been trying to play around with some rock configurations for the high section in the pond. Its about 18-19 inches at the highest point. I am trying to vary my the boulders in size and not tilting them all up on their side but this section is going to be challenging. Here is what i have come up with so far (red circle of rocks going in red circle in pond). Also, attaching another picture without the tarp. Thats my heron deterrant in the background already guarding the pond..lol.

 

[GBBUDD]

Planning to have some help tomorrow to get the liner in the pond. In the meantime with the threat of showers I have been trying to play around with some rock configurations for the high section in the pond. Its about 18-19 inches at the highest point. I am trying to vary my the boulders in size and not tilting them all up on their side but this section is going to be challenging. Here is what i have come up with so far (red circle of rocks going in red circle in pond). Also, attaching another picture without the tarp. Thats my heron deterrant in the background already guarding the pond..lol.
View attachment 149105


View attachment 149106

damn sir you got it .. nice job reading the rocks and making them marry each other BRAVO..... one note id make though is look at those edging details and see how you can incorporate a couple of those and break the rocks from being end to end all the way around the pond . but i'm diggin your layout thus far. i especially like the mini ewok

 

[ATP]

damn sir you got it .. nice job reading the rocks and making them marry each other BRAVO..... one note id make though is look at those edging details and see how you can incorporate a couple of those and break the rocks from being end to end all the way around the pond . but i'm diggin your layout thus far. i especially like the mini ewok

Haha, the “Ewok” was my attempt to “break the rocks from being end to end “ the rest of the edges will be a lot easier to deal with. I think if I can get the grass to grow right up to that top edge it will lead to the effect of the rocks being larger and going deeper than they are.

 

[addy1]

Very nice!

 

[j.w]

Great looking work!

 

[combatwombat]

Where is this mini ewok? What am I missing?

 

[GBBUDD]

 

[GBBUDD]

Helps when your pc monitor is 55 inches

 

[combatwombat]

Ha. Totally missed that looking on my phone.

 

[ATP]

Ha. Totally missed that looking on my phone.

Heron detterent or Heron food if she falls in the pond and thinks its a fish...lol.

 

[ATP]

Crazy day! Got the pond prepped for the liner and the liner installed! All while working and dealing with a furnace issue.

Took a lot longer than I thought to prep. Cleaned up all the edges that had started to erode and tried to make them at least slant away slightly. Tamped the sidewalls as @GBBUDD suggested and used a board and hammer for stubborn rocks. I have come to the conclusion I must have some of the worst pond building soil with 1000s of tiny shale knives sticking out of it. I added a good layer of sand to the horizontal surfaces and that made a big difference. Using the sand I attempted to grade so the water would flow to the bottom of the deep section, in case i ever need to drain it completely.

It was a windy day here and even though the 8oz underlayment is thick and heavy it was still getting blown around. I was able to get it installed and even used a leaf blower and shop vac to get sand and stone it had picked up off it.

The liner was another story. A 30' x 40' EPDM liner is heavy! I realized pretty quick 3 people was really not enough, 4 people would have made it much easier! So, placed the folded up liner on a board and two of us picked it up while the 3rd wheel made sure it didnt fall off. Got it to the pond edge and rolled it in. Spread it out, weighed it down and viola, liner is installed!

Tomorrow I am going to fill it up to make sure it doesnt need any adjustment before i start adding rock. Good news is there looks to be plenty of room on the bog side and I can probably make it bigger than the original plan.

No time to even take pics today but I will post an update tomorrow with pictures.