Well we finally got a break in the rains this week. Tuesday I made myself a homemade filter box to use until I decided exactly what I am going to get to use as a permanent solution. This is the filter and it seem like it is doing a great job for only $23.00 in materials and the some old quilt batting I had around. I am heading to a pon supllier tomorrow for better media. The bottom is filled with small lava rocks.
The biggest chore I wanted to get done was to clear out all the Ivy from around the waterfalls and the rocks. We are putting in a good neighbor fence in two week. That means the stream bed has to be narrowed a by about 10". I started pulling Ivy around 9:00 this moring and after 4 50 gallon trash bags full quite for the day.
I figure it would be better to left the rocks dry out a little before I slipped and fell in, which almost happened twice. I have about another 6' left on the ground to pull. I am also sure this stuff is going to be hard to get rid of. So I plan on letting it grow back but very limited as to where it can be.
I also cut down a 6' Rodi and another 6' brush where the fence will be running. I now can extend my patio another 6' foot to the edge of the house. These two bushes were blocking the path between our houses. When the nighbor lady came out as I was finishing up and saw I cut them down she about started crying. I told her I was so sorry but they were right in the path of my fence. She said she had been trying to get someone to cut them down for over 4 years and I deserved some homemade breab and cookies. Yippeeee. She's an old German lady and can she cook.
Tomorrow I start tearing into the waterfall foundation to make rooms for a larger waterfalls in the front. The stream will stay and I want to make it a little more eye appealing. The rock sides are way to high or the water way to shallow. I have plenty of liner to make it a little deeper. I put in about 3-4" of lava rock to help filter the water also. Then make the stream a couple inches above that and a littler higher water fall dropping into the pond there too.
I also found out tonight, that the manager which lives in the house behind the pond, built a 87' x 32' x 48" pond 5 years ago. It was at another place he owned in eatern Oregon. With all the work I am doing on mine right now, he said he is thinking of putting in a 10' x 12' at his place since I am fencing mine off from his view. He has all kinds of ideas on what to use and what plants I can get around here for a natural look.
Right now i have so many things going on and with his help it is just getting better all the time. If any of you have any suggestion as to what i can do for the waterfall arrangement and materials I sure would like to hear from you. I need all the ideas I can get to make this a really great looking small pond.
