Building pond in Israel by a Granny!

YShahar

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The reason I'd shy from thr poles is because I know what the utilities do to them with chemicals. Especialy at the bottom if you look you will probably find the end of a small cylinder in the wood make sure you don't. CUT that with the chain saw they are usuay 4 to 6 inches long . And make sure any run off. Can not make its way into the water
Hmmm... Well, you may have just torpedoed that idea. Not that the wood would be on the inside of the bog, but still...

OK, looks like it's going to be cinder blocks after all.
 
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Absolutely beautiful! You have built yourself a paradise... and earned yourself many happy hours reclining pond side! That would have cost tens of thousands of dollars if you had paid for it!
 
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I used a telephone pole for the net support but there's no chance of any leaching making its way to the pond as its base is a foot lower and about 6 feet away from the edge of the water.
 
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Yeah, look up how they weather sealed utility poles in the 80s and earlier. Probably creosote. Pretty nasty stuff. Sure does work, though!

Back in my construction management days, one of our clients was the owner of a high rise downtown. Their lead engineer was an older guy who'd been there for decades. He liked to tell me about how he spent the beginning of his career sourcing asbestos fireproofing for the steel as the building was being erected and now he's spending the end of his career taking it all back out.

Same thing happened to my dad. Spent his early career building a nuclear plant and the end of it taking that same plant apart.

Wouldn't want you to suffer the same fate with your bog.
 

YShahar

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Absolutely beautiful! You have built yourself a paradise... and earned yourself many happy hours reclining pond side! That would have cost tens of thousands of dollars if you had paid for it!
That--about the cost had we had someone else build it-- is exactly what I kept telling His Honor the Chef when he kvetched about being roped in to help me move rocks. Plus, we don't have Aquascape contractors here, and most people who build ponds here line them with concrete, rather than EPDM. So the only way to get the sort of design I wanted was to do it myself.

But really, who am I kidding? I don't think I could stand it if I had to just sit back and let someone else have all the fun! :) I would have driven the builders crazy the whole while!
 
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YShahar

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Yeah, look up how they weather sealed utility poles in the 80s and earlier. Probably creosote. Pretty nasty stuff. Sure does work, though!

Back in my construction management days, one of our clients was the owner of a high rise downtown. Their lead engineer was an older guy who'd been there for decades. He liked to tell me about how he spent the beginning of his career sourcing asbestos fireproofing for the steel as the building was being erected and now he's spending the end of his career taking it all back out.

Same thing happened to my dad. Spent his early career building a nuclear plant and the end of it taking that same plant apart.

Wouldn't want you to suffer the same fate with your bog.

Yeesh! You're so right!

The reason I thought about using that pole to begin with is that I noticed how well the wood has held up the past 20 years (or more, since it was already out of service when we bought the place). I don't think it's creosote; I would have recognized the smell. But something has certainly preserved it, and whatever it is could well leach into the pond, even if it's on the outside of the bog. The bog will be a good three meters away from the pond, but it's on a higher level. Now it's possible that after all these years, whatever could leach out of the wood has already done so, but why take a chance?

So probably I'll just go with cinderblocks for the inside construction and rock for the facade, and the pole will live to light another day (or not, since there's no current going to it). In any case, this decision will make His Honor the Chef happy, as he tends to get nervous whenever I pick up a chainsaw. Hides in his office mostly, but that's because there's no room under the bed.
 

addy1

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But really, who am I kidding? I don't think I could stand it if I had to just sit back and let someone else have all the fun! :) I would have driven the builders crazy the whole while!
Me too!
 
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Been there done that as the contractor.... hey that's not the way they did it on tv..TV... oh how I loved people educated by TV... ok lady well do it that way your price just doubled .....
 
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Now it's possible that after all these years, whatever could leach out of the wood has already done so, but why take a chance?
Not likely now in any of the 30 or so states I have worked in tearing down poles. The outside may silver up and not have a odors that is untill you cut it. Osmos is the leader in today's treatment.
Every now and then you may find a cedar pole that was not or was lightly treated but those are hard to find.
Creosote is hard to miss the black tar and like yea said the odor is unmistakable.
 

YShahar

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Well, it's been a long while since I last posted here. I ended up getting locked out in my usual browser (still locked out, and will need to empty the cache there to see if that helps).

The bog is coming along, with some adventures along the way. I'll hopefully be able to write about that after Shabbat. For now, I'm racing to finish up last minute pre-Shabbat stuff, so I'll just post a couple of photos for now.

Calla lilies and Texas Mountain Laurel.

Calla-Lillies_27March23_2web.jpg




Callas at sunset

callas_at_sunset_27March_web.jpg


The northern edge is now mostly finished. I still need to complete the overflow and dry stream in the northwest corner.
View_from_porch_27March23_web.jpg



I'll write a longer update tomorrow.

Cheers!
 

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