Hamstermann's pond build

[mrsclem]

Glad you weren't injured! That had to be scary!
All important question- is the boulder where you wanted it?

 

[hamstermann]

Glad you weren't injured! That had to be scary!
All important question- is the boulder where you wanted it?

We got it where I wanted it. Then my wife didn't like it there and we pulled it out.

The home Depot techs amazed me by getting an excavator that was 2 sizes larger through a space I was sure wouldn't allow it, the just pulled the excavator upright, made sure all was good, and went on their way. They had some incredible skills.

Here's where things sit right now:

I want to build a low stream but I'm not sure how to angle it. It's probably easiest to put the stream 90 degrees perpendicular to the pond, but I'm not sure that would look natural and I may have to put in a jet across from the intake bay so that corner doesn't become a dead spot.

My wife and I also talked about angling the stream like I've got the liner above the rounded area in the picture. That would possibly make the stream longer and angle the water flow directly at the intake bay, but may make building the waterfall more difficult since I couldn't just rock on top of the existing rock retaining wall in front of the fence.

How would you all handle angling the waterfall and stream? The distance from the pond to the fence is about 7.5 feet, which is coincidentally the width of my liner. It's 7.5x15. I'll have to keep them low to the ground so they don't look like a pimple or volcano and so that I don't have to move a lot of dirt.

 

[cas]

The rock work looks amazing. Fingers crossed no damage to the liner. Very glad you are OK.

 

[hamstermann]

The rock work looks amazing. Fingers crossed no damage to the liner. Very glad you are OK.

Thanks!

 

[GaryMoz]

We got it where I wanted it. Then my wife didn't like it there and we pulled it out.

The home Depot techs amazed me by getting an excavator that was 2 sizes larger through a space I was sure wouldn't allow it, the just pulled the excavator upright, made sure all was good, and went on their way. They had some incredible skills.

Here's where things sit right now:
View attachment 163989

I want to build a low stream but I'm not sure how to angle it. It's probably easiest to put the stream 90 degrees perpendicular to the pond, but I'm not sure that would look natural and I may have to put in a jet across from the intake bay so that corner doesn't become a dead spot.

My wife and I also talked about angling the stream like I've got the liner above the rounded area in the picture. That would possibly make the stream longer and angle the water flow directly at the intake bay, but may make building the waterfall more difficult since I couldn't just rock on top of the existing rock retaining wall in front of the fence.

How would you all handle angling the waterfall and stream? The distance from the pond to the fence is about 7.5 feet, which is coincidentally the width of my liner. It's 7.5x15. I'll have to keep them low to the ground so they don't look like a pimple or volcano and so that I don't have to move a lot of dirt.

Looks great.

So the pond is taking up the whole garden

 

[hamstermann]

Looks great.

So the pond is taking up the whole garden

Yeah, pretty much. My backyard is L-shaped. The chickens have the small part of the L for their coop and run, The corner is a trampoline area, and the pond and patio take up a good portion of the long side of the L.

Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[hamstermann]

Started leak testing the bog today. At first there was water coming from the fish cave I'd made with drainage pipe. I eventually thought to fill the back of it with foam, hoping it would expand and stop the leak. Then I noticed that it looked like the water was coming from the other end of the wall as well. I guess my seaming job wasn't sufficient because the pond is filling as well. I guess if they both fill, the bog and pond can both be under water and the bog can still do its job. I'll just have to rely on my stream for aeration. Once I make it, that is.

This is not how I wanted it to work, but as long as water doesn't get outside the liner, I guess it's fine. I am NOT undoing all this work to find the leak.

 

[GBBUDD]

set this one aside for putting in a pondless in the front yard in the future and cough up for another pump in the meantime.

how long is the cord why not rework a corner where the pump will be

 

[GBBUDD]

Looking good.

With a bit of luck the stone will all settle down and stop moving.

With mine I use 3 sizes of stone and so far there doesn't seem to be any movement , I have't used any pea gravel yet my finest stone is around 20mm (3/4"). Looking at Aquascape and a few other places it seem okay plant in, no need for smaller. Having said that if I need to I can get some bags of smaller stuff to plant in to

I have 4 to 6 2 to 3 and then 3/4 with a dusting of 3/8 pea very little

 

[GBBUDD]

We'll, we made good progress today:
View attachment 163959

And then this happened:
View attachment 163960

The worst I got was a torn shirt and a scraped up elbow. I'm going to pray hard and hope to amazed at not having any holes in the liner.

I was just holding the strapped up rock out too far from the cab of the mini ex as I turned - the center of gravity was too high and I tipped.


We got the mini-ex because the gate to the backyard is less than 5 feet wide. Should be interesting to see how they're able to get it upright tomorrow. And see if I have any extra fees for repairs, damages, and an extra rental day. I'm hoping they just freeze/extend my time but since it's operator error, who knows?

Thankfully your ok !

Your very lucky it was at a shallowest part of the pond with the round out with the retaining wall. nice job it held up the machine. sorry I'm no where near you we could have righted that machine without too much difficulty, a come along and a A frame would do the job and use the bucket of the machine to help push.

What about a rope out to your truck? you must have a pickup to have these pictures, tie the rope onto the roll cage and the role cage and see how that goes. it would help greatly if you could dig down on the side your pulling to make it fall into a hole sorta speak

 

[GBBUDD]

I was looking for the pic of the mini right up to see what it weighs and saw you don't have just a 5 foot wide opening from the driveway you have 8 feet at least i guess one section of the fence doesn't open . well thats an easy fix to open that and get the right size machine in to right the mini

 

[hamstermann]

how long is the cord why not rework a corner where the pump will be

It was a 25 foot cord and I needed something like a 28. Ended up getting another pump with a longer cord and higher capacity, so I'm good now.

I have 4 to 6 2 to 3 and then 3/4 with a dusting of 3/8 pea very little

Mine was 4-6, then 1 minus, then some s inch minus, then a mix of 3- and 1-. I'll probably put more 1- on it too.

Thankfully your ok !

Your very lucky it was at a shallowest part of the pond with the round out with the retaining wall. nice job it held up the machine. sorry I'm no where near you we could have righted that machine without too much difficulty, a come along and a A frame would do the job and use the bucket of the machine to help push.

What about a rope out to your truck? you must have a pickup to have these pictures, tie the rope onto the roll cage and the role cage and see how that goes. it would help greatly if you could dig down on the side your pulling to make it fall into a hole sorta speak

I was looking for the pic of the mini right up to see what it weighs and saw you don't have just a 5 foot wide opening from the driveway you have 8 feet at least i guess one section of the fence doesn't open . well thats an easy fix to open that and get the right size machine in to right the mini

Thanks! Yeah, it was a huge blessing that I wasn't injured and I haven't found any holes in the liner from it.

The gate you saw on the east side of my house is a drive-through gate but that area has been turned into a chicken area since the picture was taken. There's a coop behind half or 3/4 of the gate and there's a temporary fence parallel to the drive-through gate that keeps the chickens from terrorizing the rest of the yard.

What the home Depot guys ended up doing was getting a bigger machine, coming through the drive-through gate with surgical precision, pulling up one of my t-posts that I must have sunk 4 feet deep, and driving close enough to pull the mini-ex out. Then they reversed the whole process. I was amazed.

 

[hamstermann]

Just shut the hose off. I think the pond is as full as I want it to be and the hose meter said we'd put 2,850.6 gallons in. That's for the intake, bog, and pond itself. I have a 6,000 gph pump on the bog and another 6000 for the stream and waterfall.

The stream one is just flex PVC on a pump for now which is kind of cool because I can just move it around to see how different locations affect the sound and the direction of the current in the pond. That's pretty fun.

It's too dark for pictures or video tonight but I'll try to take some tomorrow. I'm leaving both pumps running over night and hoping there are no surprise leaks to make the pumps run dry while I'm sleeping.

As soon as it got dark the mosquitoes came out in force. I need some fish to eat them and the hornets that were coming to the pond for a drink while it was filling up.

 

[Pablo]

Just shut the hose off. I think the pond is as full as I want it to be and the hose meter said we'd put 2,850.6 gallons in. That's for the intake, bog, and pond itself. I have a 6,000 gph pump on the bog and another 6000 for the stream and waterfall.

The stream one is just flex PVC on a pump for now which is kind of cool because I can just move it around to see how different locations affect the sound and the direction of the current in the pond. That's pretty fun.

It's too dark for pictures or video tonight but I'll try to take some tomorrow. I'm leaving both pumps running over night and hoping there are no surprise leaks to make the pumps run dry while I'm sleeping.

As soon as it got dark the mosquitoes came out in force. I need some fish to eat them and the hornets that were coming to the pond for a drink while it was filling up.

Exciting times, cant wait to see the pictures. I remember the first night being so nervous that there were no leaks. Sorry missed the whole excavator tipping over, glad you are all right. That is so scary, almost happened to me, my heart was pounding, luckily I was able to stop just in time, I could feel something was not right.

 

[GBBUDD]

It was a 25 foot cord and I needed something like a 28. Ended up getting another pump with a longer cord and higher capacity, so I'm good now.


Mine was 4-6, then 1 minus, then some s inch minus, then a mix of 3- and 1-. I'll probably put more 1- on it too.






Thanks! Yeah, it was a huge blessing that I wasn't injured and I haven't found any holes in the liner from it.

The gate you saw on the east side of my house is a drive-through gate but that area has been turned into a chicken area since the picture was taken. There's a coop behind half or 3/4 of the gate and there's a temporary fence parallel to the drive-through gate that keeps the chickens from terrorizing the rest of the yard.

What the home Depot guys ended up doing was getting a bigger machine, coming through the drive-through gate with surgical precision, pulling up one of my t-posts that I must have sunk 4 feet deep, and driving close enough to pull the mini-ex out. Then they reversed the whole process. I was amazed.

i love working with excavators they are more versatile then people can ever imagine. Got to play with this little guy last week 165000 pound machine it could have reached over the house/ but you wouldn't have had a drive way left when he was done. glad you made out ok and i'm sure you were not the first to flip one