Wisconsin Pond Build

[addy1]

laughing sissy, they wouldn't even let me past those guards at the gate let alone at the boat

 

[sissy]

Well find a creek somewhere near your house I'm sure there has to be some neat driftwood .I found a stump pile that had been left near a field to rot and gosh there was some neat stumps there with interesting shapes to them .I put a couple in my landscape and they look like art ,stumps can have some really pretty shapes to them so look around and look for some great mosses too .I found some kind of moss that looks blue rather than green .Every little thing you find on the side of the road could be something special .I even found several old abandoned houses and risky going in them but found some great treasures .I even found several old scrub boards and an old wash tub on legs .Forgot to add the property where theses house are is owned by the lumber yard and I did ask and they told me at your own risk .

 

[herzausstahl]

Sissy,
Stumps are great if you can move them without breaking the roots extending out from them. That place I posted pictures of earlier has an area full of cedar that have amazing roots and a lot are stumps sitting in the ground or trees that fell over. Some amazing ones, but too big to carry out and also on a city park area so can't take them out anyway. I'm surprised the lumber yard gave you permission, even though they said at your own risk. You think they would be worried that someone would get injured, get a lawyer (not saying you would, but they don't know that), and sue them for getting hurt. Or even worry about your health insurance company sueing if you get injured. But cool that they let you go in, I'm sure you find lots of cool abandoned objects in them. And when you like to do a lot of hobbies, free always helps and is a lot better! lol


Even though its 60 degrees out today and the next couple days, I decided to shut down and take out the filter since it will get down to the 50's for highs and in the low 30's at night by tuesday, and should stay there and keep going down for this time of year. Plus I wanted to rinse out the filter before I stored it for the winter. When I cleaned it out I found some interesting bugs in the sponge part of the filter. Has anyone seen these larvae before?



I also found this guy just hanging out in the pond, have seen these bugs in it before, does anyone know what kind they are?



And here are some pictures of my fish, they have settled down with the temps dropping and mostly just hang out around the bottom of the pond. I haven't fed them this summer and plan to start in spring. Its recommended to use different food for spring/fall right? For the summer I was planning on using the Wardley Pond Pellets, does anyone else use these? Mostly like them because the cost isn't too bad and they are available locally at Walmart so I don't have to have them shipped or spend more for the name brand Koi food pellets from Petco or Petsmart.

 

[sissy]

I guess the lumber yard knows me well enough after 8 years they always tell me keep my cell phone with me and call if I need help and they know my truck so if it was still there for to long they would call my cell to check in on me .I make sure of where I walk is sound .I use a large hand truck to get some of the stumps I pick up and that one bug looks like a waterbeetle and the others just look like the bugs you find in the filter that are beneficial to the system working .Noticed your leaves in the bottom in your pic and you may want to get a pool net to get them out before they cause problems with your water quality .I try to net the bottom of my pond 2 or 3 times a week you never know what blows in and just getting the gunk off the bottom helps also

 

[taherrmann4]

Petco has 20% off this weekend online...

 

[herzausstahl]

LOL Sissy,
It still sounds like you found a pretty cool lumber yard to let you do all of that. Thanks, I was wondering what the one was. The other ones seemed like some kind of larvae, wasn't sure which, mostly curious if anyone knew. The funny part was that I found worms in there also, still alive which was surprising. I did throw a couple in a few weeks ago to see if the fish would eat them, but guess they didn't. Just shocked the worms could survive the water. Yeah, I have been slacking on the leaves, I did get a pool net to get stuff out of the bottom, just haven't gotten around to it yet. I do pick them out of the rocks though.

Here is the Jebao pressure filter I have as I took it apart to wash it out for storage for the winter:


It has a 13watt UV, and three sponge filters for various sized particles, and then bio balls on the bottom (which aren't as important to me since I have all the river rock in the stream when it is running.



Here is what the bio balls look like.



The sponge filters.



The lid with the UV.

 

[herzausstahl]

Here is the waterfall now that the filter pump is shut off:



Got a lot of string algae on it, was gonna let it dry before I pulled it off of the rocks. On the plus side it hid my mishaps with the waterfall foam that I had when doing this part.



Here is my daughter who loves to walk across the rocks infront of the waterfall no matter how much I yell at her not too. Today she said she just wanted to sit on this rock.



To give you a better idea of where she is.



These are the rocks I put in place to walk across that lead to the path on the other side. For a 3 year old she has amazing balance, she learned by watching me and I try to get her to ask me to carry her across from the deck and sometimes she sneaks across on me (not too often). She was able to the other night in her gymnastics class walk along the balance beam for about 3-4 ft on her own (about 3' off the ground) without the teacher helping her, and before that the teacher only helped hold her elbow (my daughter yells at her if she tries to help her at all). So basically I really have to watch her since if she sees me do something she thinks she can do it also.

 

[sissy]

Just spray it with peroxide wait an hour and hose it off it will turn white and your daughter must be like her daddy and I bet your wife says that too .I was a daddy's girl and everything daddy did I did .That will just make her a strong women so be happy .She sure is cute as a button and must look like her momma

 

[addy1]

I used to help my dad do everything, his shadow. How neat that is one cute little girl you have there.

 

[herzausstahl]

Sissy and Addy,
Thank you! Yes she is a total daddy's girl, my wife doesn't even try to deny it. She kind of looks like both of us, but a lot like I did as a kid. LOL if she is a strong woman, that will be from her mother. Sissy as for the string algae on the rocks I had some in the stream that just dried up with the sun and it just caked off, I was gonna wait to see if this did that too. There is no water in the area now, it was all able to drain out back into the pond except for maybe and inch at the bottom of the waterfall spillway and there wasn't any algae in there since it held 6-8 inches of water when the system was running.

 

[addy1]

I never really played with dolls, my dad raised me with tools, which I still love to use.

I have been cleaning out the pond the last few days, winter clean out, but leaving some large patches of some bottom string algae to feed the snails, hide the frogs, hide the tad poles for the winter. Tossed back in tons of tads, trapdoor sails and at least 6 frogs including skim basket rider.

 

[sissy]

I was reading on a pond sight how algae dried up still has viability and can grow after being dried up for awhile ,not sure if it is true or not .I grew up using a chain saw at the age of 10 I was working clearing trees to build houses .Proves a strong father daughter relationship pays off and I guess the same goes with a mother son relationship .Men learn to understand more about women and there wants and needs and makes a better future man .We have still been in the high 70's here and no frost yet but here it is only supposed to be in the 50's by friday .I saw Colorado got snow and thats one thing I guess makes some people happy but hope it holds off coming here until January

 

[taherrmann4]

Sissy,
Often times when I pull out algae from my creek I will leave it on a rock with the intention of going back and throwing it in the garden but hardly happens. After several weeks or even days the algae seems to turn to a soil like substance and falls apart when you go to pick it up. I am sure there are forms of algae that may posses that quality but mine does not seem to, thank god!

 

[sissy]

When I was reading it I was wondering about how many variety's of algae there are and found out there are lots of them and that most a single cell and will come back stronger and some are immune to totally killing them .Amazing what one irratating plant can do .I guess they are like poison ivy and kudzu you think you killed but there it is again .Do you know that it can be a bio fuel .who would of thought that geeze LOL

 

[herzausstahl]

Addy,
my wife encourages her to play with dolls so she isn't a total Tomboy, lol. She plays with everything. My dad never used tools too much with the exception of chain saws so I don't use them a whole lot with the exception of a shovel, and the mitre saw I borrowed from my brother-in-law for the fence and then deck.

Sissy,
I haven't done too much like that with her yet, although my parents house is on the side of a wooded valley so I grew up helping dad clear fallen trees or areas of the land. I remember him teaching us (responsibly if you can believe it) how to build a fire with a match and hemlock twigs. And when I was my daughters age or probably a little bit older we would help him haul brush to burn piles and whatever else he was doing in the woods.

The algae I don't mind on the falls since it makes it look more natural, but at some point I plan on pealing it off, when I get time. I still have to get my garage ready for winter (storing outdoor furniture etc) so I can park my truck in there for when we start getting snow. Still not too bad here yet, around 50 during the day and in the mid to low 30's at night. I checked the pond temp the other day and was at 46 degrees, so not too bad yet.