Building pond in Israel by a Granny!

[GBBUDD]

My guess? Ultimately, YShahar 1: Rock 0

sounds like @YShahar is going to leave a bit of herself behind on this one i saw what she did to get the other boulder out . so if this ones a challenge it looks like its going to take a pound of flesh with it.
CAN YOU WORK A 45 POUND JACK HAMMER? THEY HAVE A ROCK DRILL SAME CONCEPT AS DEMO BUT IT CHEWS UP ROCK BUT YOU'LL NEED A COMPRESSOR/ a road compressor

 

[YShahar]

Well, it's been a while since I've updated this thread. A lot has happened in the interim, including work on the bog, the unexpected discovery of an Aquascape centipede and aquablocks here in Israel, many trials and tribulations getting the bog rebuilt to fit the centipede, much sorting of rock to go in the bog... But I won't bore you with all of that; I'll just upload a few pics later on. For now, I want to relate something that warmed my heart and restored my faith in our future...

Two months back we bought a few tons of river rock for the garden, but the truck driver wasn't able to deliver it to our yard. The slope was too far down and the hazard of power lines was too great. So I had him drop the bags off at the top of the slope of the empty plot next to ours. But of course that raised the problem of how to get all that rock down the slope and over to our yard. I put together two lengths of sewage pipe and an elbow that allowed us to shovel the rocks in and slide it down a bit lower on the slope. But still, that's a lot of rock to move!

And then, yesterday afternoon, I heard a couple of kids in the vacant lot next door. "Hey guys!" I yelled at them, "Be careful of snakes over there!"

Well, they wanted to know what kind of snakes. And what's this sewage pipe for? And what's with this big pile of rocks?

So I told them the story of the truck driver and the rocks and how I was building a Japanese style garden and was slowly moving the rocks down the pipe and over to the garden one bucket at a time. I showed them the pond and the fish and the paths where the rock would one day go.

"We can help!" said Nadav. "Sure!" said Ilay. "Tomorrow, we'll bring our friends and start moving rocks!"

And sure enough, today at 13:30, as the 2nd grade kids started home from school, there were Ilay and Nadav and two friends--Emma and Ido--ready to start moving rock.

And move rock they did! They worked together to pour river rock into the pipe, shovel it into a wheelbarrow at the bottom of the slope, and then sort it into buckets in the yard. They figured out how to tie the pipe so it would stay in place and how to rig up an empty bag so that the rocks would flow into it just so. In short, they set up an assembly line!

By the end of the day, they'd reduced a 1-ton bag by half, sorted about four large buckets of rock, finished the Shabbat leftovers (including a basket of cherry tomatoes and a plate of cookies), and made themselves completely at home.

If this is what these kids are like at 9 years old, well, I feel that our future is assured!

 

[GBBUDD]

It says volume about how faith and family. Not to mention the sorry old women these kids helped to build her dream, it speaks volumes for who you are @YShahar .

I love the fact that the parents have still been active and not relied on teachers to point the way. At least that's the way it is all to often here in the states.
I love hearing stories like this. It is hope for society. I believe how strong your faith is over there has a lot to do with it. Even if mixed at the younger years the rules are the same respect and to help others when they need a hand.
But on the other side of that coin you installed trust and confidence in them you didn't baby them . They were shown a task and they figured it out.
Cheers! Salute! Way to go !

 

[j.w]

What a wonderful world you have going on over there despite all those flying missiles and mass destruction. Those are some fantastic kids! Glad you are getting your garden headed in the right direction. I think you are gonna have some frequent visitors to your pond now. Who knows maybe they will get the pond bug and will someday build ponds of their own!

 

[GBBUDD]

See what happens Gbbudd when your not more careful about punctuation my statement was supose to say Sorry , " comma" meaning forgive me for saying old woman.
Instead gbbudd azz leaves out the comma making the statement rather derogative. Not the intent so Sorry about that.... @YShahar

 

[YShahar]

See what happens Gbbudd when your not mote careful about punctuation my statement was supose to say Sorry , " comma" meaning forgive me for saying old woman.
Instead gbbudd azz leaves out the comma making the statement rather derogative. Not the intent so Sorry about that.... @yshahra

No worries! I've gotten used to figuring out what you mean by now. It's usually worth the effort to decipher! ;-)

 

[GBBUDD]

Your hired , you can be my proof reader.

 

[YShahar]

Your hired , you can be my proof reader.

Oh no you don't!!!! I've got enough troubles without risking my sanity as well! ;-)
And that should be:

You're hired. You can be my proof reader.

So there. Nya, nya!

 

[Pablo]

Oh no you don't!!!! I've got enough troubles without risking my sanity as well! ;-)
And that should be:

You're hired. You can be my proof reader.

So there. Nya, nya!

I just use Google translate for @GBBUDD posts, works great This thread is definitely a nice pick-me-up during the dreary days of January. What a great story with the kids.

 

[YShahar]

I just use Google translate for @GBBUDD posts, works great This thread is definitely a nice pick-me-up during the dreary days of January. What a great story with the kids.

Google translate... Now there's an idea!

If you recall a couple of weeks ago when ChatGPT unexpectedly went offline? Well, that was just after I'd fed it one of @GBBUDD's posts to decipher... ;-)

@GBBUDD, don't take it personally. We had a saying in the army: "The biggest target is the one everyone aims at!" That's what happens when you get to be a legend!

 

[GBBUDD]

Oh no you don't!!!! I've got enough troubles without risking my sanity as well! ;-)
And that should be:

You're hired. You can be my proof reader.

So there. Nya, nya!

You passed my little test. We pay 15 an hour min rate these days

 

[GBBUDD]

You passed my little test. We pay 15 an hour min rate these days

Like I said in the past I don't take much personally. But it is too easy to piss me off.
Online is a time killer. Every walk of life . Be woke try to tell me how I'm to think or say and you'll find the latter. You want to call yourself a flower pot,a kitty cat I say all the best of luck to you. Insist I must do the same and we'll it surely won't be what your looking for.
I've always been good in sports , great in survival out in the woods, easily see solutions, I'm use to someone trying to step up and always welcome the competition.
Great Big Buddy

 

[YShahar]

Well, it's been quit a while since I posted an update. Things have been in flux here to the point that I haven't really been online much at all, other than the occasional FB post to catch up with folks abroad. But that doesn't mean nothing is happening with the pond! In fact, there's been an incredible amount of progress since my last update. So here's a roundup of what's new:

I met Israel's only Aquascape retailer on a Facebook group, and it turned out that he's gone out of business due to family issues. So I bought his last centipede and 12 small aquablocks from him. No snorkel, but I was able to adapt an old olive barrel by cutting a hole in it for the centipede.

Since I didn't have soil to make a trench for the centipede, I ended up using a bunch of concrete pavers that my neighbor next door gifted me when he did some major work on his house. Unfortunately, the pavers had to be individually brought down two flights of stairs, and those buggers were heavy! By stacking those along the bottom on both sides of the centipede, I was able to get the trench more or less the right height. Not exact, but that's life!

So, after many adventures, the wetland is now up and running! I'm still slowly sorting handfuls of gravel to toss in, as the gravel is about half sharp flint and half nice round rocks. But getting there!

Since there's a little seating area in the shade underneath the orange tree, I decided that I needed a waterfall facing that area (because, after all, what's a sitting area without a water feature?). So I built a new stream out of the bog on that side, and used a beautiful boulder that came out of the bog dig as a waterfall facing the pond (see a previous post on how we managed to get that thing out of the bog!). There will be another waterfall coming out pointing toward the seating area, but I'm waiting for a foam gun to arrive from Amazon (should be here within the next two weeks) so I can seal up the openings of the first waterfall, thereby raising the water level enough to go over the weir stone of the second one (it sounds more complicated than it is!).

Here's a photo of the new stream in progress (the seating area is out of sight behind the lemon tree and the split branch in the photo will form one step of the waterfall on that side):

Mohammed, the guy with the front-end loader who comes every year to plow a firebreak in the vacant lot, surprised me this year with some lovely limestone boulders. I put those to good use building up the sides of the stream and the planting area near the new stream. Getting these from the vacant lot into our yard involved some interesting techniques. Here's the largest of the rocks on it's way to its new home:

So here's a video of how things look at present:

 

[j.w]

Gorgeous and lots of hard work!

 

[GBBUDD]

I am impressed granny. Coming along so nice. Truely aquatic oasis in the desert.
You do realize that boulder looks to be 4 to 500 pounds or is it the camera making it look that big. Did you get the dumb guys to show how strong they are again?