Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Koi Pond - A new beginning Part One

I want to share with you the making of our new koi pond. It is a work in progress right now and it consumed several days out of our "stay-cation" last week, haha! Up until my hubby hurt his neck and sadly, it sits... patiently waiting. So here it goes!

so here's our old pond, kinda looking tired and sad after years of neglect.
view from other side - still same old pond only being emptied
 So, we discovered a month or so ago that our pond was losing water. After figuring out the tears in the liner were pretty down low, I had the fantastic idea to move the pond out from under our deck (where it shouldn't have been in the first place!) so we could see it from our deck and I could finally grow some glorious lotus (hopefully) and other pond plants.

just a short jaunt to the left - our new location for the pond
rough layout for the new pond - I was going for an organic shape
I laid it out with a trusty garden hose and went up on the deck to check it out. Looks good to me!

Breaking ground
Having a backhoe it a definite plus on the digging part.

almost done digging mechanically
 It didn't take long to get all we could get with the backhoe. Next was the hand digging and leveling. Yes, I jumped in there and slung dirt too. I've probably got liver damage from all the Ibprofren I've taken... haha

So I don't have many pictures of it in between here as we cut, glued and laid down our liner then schlepped it to the hole, because hubby was not too keen on me stopping to grab my camera every 30 minutes, plus it was 96 degrees (F) and I had sweat rolling down the crack and everywhere else you don't want it... ew. You wouldn't believe how heavy that stinkin' thing is. I think I ruptured my spleen heaving it up on the wagon.

Asher wore out
We even had broken child labor laws I'm sure by having Asher help shovel loads of sand. He is a little sand shovelin' machine! But he loved to feel important by helping and he really did do us a favor by staying in the back of the truck and shovel sand into buckets for us to level the liner. We worked until about 10:30 that night.

not too wore out to do tricks for the camera
happy fish
While we emptied the old pond, we had to keep the fish in a holding tank - an old pre-formed pond I had from a long time ago so they were really happy to discover this ocean of a new pond. The reason we had to remove them was because we put the dirt in the old hole.

curiosity killed the...
Here's Lightning checking out the fish wondering if they are supper. haha

All one day's hard work
Hubby and Asher admiring the work we had done, and watching Lightning
view from deck
The next morning I got this picture and was happy to see the fish happily swimming along. We have 5 fish, 2 are blackish bronze and may never be seen again!

go the pole in for the electric box
This was part of the boring part, but needed. Installing the electric. Luckily hubby is multi-talented. See the little orange koi showing off for the camera?

adding electric box for pump
Another scorcher and to add insult to injury there are these nasty little knats that fly up your nose in your ears and buzz all around you that literally drive you mad. Skin So Soft to the rescue. Too bad it breaks me out, but sacrifces... ya know? Plus it made hubby smell better ;)  remember... still 96 degrees F.

playing in the bubbles as we add more water

The white and black koi fish is our largest. I think it's a she, we've had babies but not in the previous pond. Hopefully we'll get more babies as I get plants and the pond matures. Not sure where the time went and what we did in between these pics but before I knew it, we were building the first waterfall and it was dark. Yes, those rocks are heavy!

waterfall #1 made of Kentucky flagstone (limestone? sandstone?
close up - ahhh if you could only hear it.
Really, if you could hear it... heaven. Trickle, trickle and the bull frogs singing to each other. So relaxing. We are going to add more of the same rock all around the perimeter of the pond. I hope I have enough. Rock is really expensive! We don't have this kind around us or on our property to dig up, too bad.

We actually have another waterfall built but I haven't taken pictures of it yet. I'll post them soon. Hubby's vacation is over now (good thing, he was working me like a dog), so back to our normal schedule but stay tuned for more as the koi pond slowly progresses!

post signature

10 comments:

  1. WOW, you have been BUSY- I'd wondered where you were this week, and now I know! We just finished our pond this week too- tho' it's not nearly as nice as yours- we found a great deal on Craig's list for a little pre formed liner. I had a really hard time talking my hubby into that- he's still feeling guilty for bleaching our last pond to clean it- he SWORE that it wouldn't harm the fish which of course, it did.....but it DID clean the pond :/
    xoxo
    Stephanie

    ReplyDelete
  2. OMG--I love this!! This is what I would love to have to visit everyday in my yard--beautiful--and lots of work you did--beautiful job!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow what a lot of work you have done! The finished product is worth it though I am sure. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a busy and productive stay-cation! Great pond! I was wondering where you'd been =)
    Glad all's well, and I'm looking forward to seeing more pics of your pond.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's going to be beautiful when it's finished. I would love a pond but I haven't quite convinced the hubby yet.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hola Jaime.. what alot of work.. but it's beautiful.. can hardly wait to see it finished.. I would love one of these.. but think I'd rather just watch someone do it...lol
    Kath
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well, this sounds like a super-ambitious project! I can see that it's a lot of hard work - but I'm sure it's going to look amazing when it's finished! :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I used to think Asher looked more like you, but seeing the photo with hubby.....Asher is beginning to be a "chip of the old block"!! What a great project. I can relate to the heat issue. It was 106 yesterday. We brought our "puppy", Bogart, in to cool down and he is loving it! Can't wait to see the finished product......more photos please! TAKE CARE!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow. Just been catching up on all your other posts Jaime. What I wouldn't give to have some land. I think our little back yard is maybe the size of your pond! Hahaha! Well it is when you take away the space used up by Craigs double shed full of birdies. Ah well, there's a nice green out front for the kids to play on.

    You've been SO busy. Hope you aren't aching to much.

    ReplyDelete
  10. How fun and exciting...I love koi ponds! Can't wait to see it all finished, I hope your hubby is doing better. Happy Summer to all of you!

    ReplyDelete

I love it that you are wanting to comment but please know that I have moved my current blog (this is the old host). You can now find me at www.jaimehaney.com/blog and leave a comment there. This very same post is on there, as I have picked up the whole kit and kaboodle and moved it. I hope to see you! Please come by and say howdy!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Join the Spooky Fun!