And...drum roll, please... we have water flowing in the pond!
Not that it's finished yet, but it's getting there! I've still got some edging to finish up, a shallow "mini bog" to do on the shallow side, and the rest of the stream to rock in. But today I went to an agricultural supply store and bought some fittings to get the pump up and running. I've got some pvc pieces on order, but for now, I've got it hooked up using a drip hose pressure fitting. Seems to do the job well enough! Best of all, I'm finding that the intake bay works exactly as advertised, and is pulling in all the floating stuff very quickly.
I've got the hose going around behind the edging but inside the liner. At the moment, I've looped it back on itself at the top of the stream so that it pours directly into the pooling area before the waterfall. As the rocks haven't been foamed in yet, most of the water is going behind the rocks rather than over, but it still gives me a good idea of the flow I can expect, and will hopefully reveal any low spots or leaks.
I'll get some photos once things are a bit more organized. Meanwhile, the sound is lovely!
The big adventure of the day was that I got a couple of huge rocks delivered right over the back fence directly into the garden. In my last update, I mentioned that a Bedouin guy named Muhammad comes with a tractor every year and clears the brush and top growth in the vacant lot. Well, it turns out that today was the day! When I heard his tractor coming down the slope, I was trying to figure out how I could get his attention without potentially getting run over, as he'd never hear me over the noise of the tractor. But at one point, I heard him stop on the ledge somewhere below our house. So I climbed over the fence on our side and made my way down the slope. Managed to get there just as he was climbing back into the tractor.
Once he got over the shock of grannies popping up out of the bushes and asking him to scoop up rocks, he asked, "How many and what size do you want?"
"How much would you charge me for each rock?" I asked. And we were off and running!
In the end, we agreed on a price and got to work. We had some fun picking out a few rocks on the hillside, and I watched as Muhammad dug them out and maneuvered them into the shovel of this tractor. He made it look easy! And I got to ride the tractor back up the slope, going in reverse due to the steepness of the incline. Once back up to the level of the vacant lot, Muhammad maneuvered through the overgrown trees and got the shovel into our yard, dropping the rocks on our side so delicately that they barely even knocked together. As I said, he makes it all look easy!
Here's a picture of the rocks, one of which is much bigger than it looks here:
Afterward, I showed Muhammad the pond and how it was meant to work. He was quite impressed and said he'd come back to see it once it's all finished. He also offered to bring me some nice weathered limestone from around the Bedouin encampment. Not sure I can afford it, but who knows!
Meanwhile, here's a photo of the really pretty rock from my earlier post:
This one will go on the near side of the pond, so that the quartz facets catch the sunlight.
I'm not quite sure where the new ones that Muhammad delivered will go. For one thing, the bigger one is going to be very, very hard to move. I should be able to roll the smaller one over to use as an edging rock.
I'll be taking a couple of days off from the pond, as I have a cousin visiting from the U.S. and will be doing a bit of tour-guiding tomorrow and Thursday. But I may be able to get a bit done in between. More anon!
Nope, but I'm 60 years-young!
