July 30, 2019 - Tuesday evening
70 degrees/clear skies/breezy
Pentoga Road

Congratulations, son. We're proud of you! The captain has already assumed his duties and says things are going well. We'll see all four sons at Commander Pennington's (Josh's) Coast Guard retirement ceremony in New London, Connecticut, this weekend. It will be nice to have everyone together all at once, even if it is for a short time.  

I just happened to think. We'll have a Captain and a Commander under the same roof. I'm not sure I can handle all the brass.

I've written nonstop about the pond all summer and today, I happened across an old photo taken the first summer after I bought the house. You can see the weeds in the field alongside the house. We now call that area the garden, pond, and side yard.



There was so much trash and so many boulders and rocks that I couldn't even drive the tractor from the house to the edge of the woods. Sure has changed over the past nine years.

I also found a picture taken from the front meadow, now a formal yard. Weeds were chest high and the brush was heavy.



The main trail going down the middle of the property was a deer path.



So much for a stroll down memory lane. Occasionally I wonder if all the work is worth the trouble, but then I look at the pictures and see the improvements that Sargie and I have done and I know it is.

As a wise man once told me when I first contemplated retirement, "A person either moves ahead or occasionally, he may take a step backwards, but he NEVER stays in the same place for long, otherwise he grows old, withers, and dies." 

I guess I'll keep making the lawn bigger, growing gardens, playing in the shop, and digging holes. It beats the alternative.

After running a quick errand in town Tuesday morning, I returned home to pick sugar snap peas.

They are crispy and tender and so sweet. Sargie and I eat them like candy, pod and all.



I spent a couple of hours installing the pond pump. It will work just fine where it is now, but once the pond is filled, it will be sitting under five feet of water. I'm fearful that in a few years, the pump will need servicing and to do that, I'd have to hold my breath and detach it under water. I'm not seeing that as a viable option.  

There's no slack in the perforated pipe that runs through the filters so I'm considering attaching a forty five degree elbow and running PVC pipe up to the two foot level and placing the pump there. At least if it needs work, I'll be able to do it with my head above water.

The pump is just above the water in the middle

I'm running water from the well, an hour at a time, twice day. The pond is slowly filling and I remain optimistic that I'll be able to start the pump and filter system towards the end of next week. Once that happens, the goldfish that are living in the temporary pond will be turned loose in their new, permanent, home.

The late afternoon and evening hours were spent on the backhoe landscaping the area where the garden house will be.

I'll shoot the laser level across the area early next week to be sure it's level, then begin digging the footings. I hope to have the base built and in place in the next ten days or so.

There's a berm around the entire south side of the garden as well as where the garden house will be to keep any flood water from pouring through the area. 

I quit playing in the dirt this evening, came inside and took a shower, then enjoyed a delicious cucumber sandwich. I'm so sleepy tonight that I can hardly keep my eyes open. Sargie should be pulling in the drive fairly soon.

I'll take my bride to work early in the morning then come back home. Cleaning house is on tomorrow's agenda. I told Sargie I'd clean so she can finish packing tonight.

I'll pick Sargie up from work tomorrow before we head directly to the airport and leave for Boston by way of Detroit. Thursday will be grandbaby day at Matt and Jessica's before Friday's military retirement ceremony for Josh.

It's time to get this uploaded before I fall asleep with my fingers on the keyboard.

I'm about too pooped to pop.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Calendula flowers

Feeding time on Pentoga Road

July 29, 2019 - Monday evening

73 degrees/partly cloudy/windy

Pentoga Road

I just shut the windows in the living room. After last night's storm, the humidity dropped by half and it seems almost chilly tonight.

It did storm and we were finally under the right cloud at the right time. I was amazed how much the 1.6 inches of precipitation added to the pond, but it is, after all, one big funnel.

Last night's driving rain washed any dirt and clay that was on the dry liner into the water. Until the filters are connected and the pump turned on, the water will probably look like creamed coffee.

I followed Sargie to Iron Mountain Monday morning so the oil could be changed and tires rotated on both the Kia and Equinox. 

After doing a bit of banking, I made my way to a local green growing shop and purchased the pump for the pond.

Originally, I was going to buy a unit that would recirculate (pump) 2,500 gallons an hour, but found the same model with double the pumping capacity at a lower price. The owner wasn't sure why it was marked so low, but she said she'd honor the price that was on the box, a full seventy dollars less than it was supposed to be.

So I'm now the proud owner of a big ol' pump that ought to do a great job of pulling the water through the filters and keeping a strong current circulating in the pond.

This afternoon was spent constructing the final filter. I was forced to carry fourteen sandbags and almost that many five gallon buckets of gravel through thick and gooey clay until I reached the rubber liner.

It took several hours, but by afternoon's end, the filter was completed. The perforated pipes are now buried beneath six to eight inches of gravel. 

I'll go to town Tuesday and purchase the parts needed to reduce the perforated pipe so it will attach to the pump. After, all that will be needed is water.

I ran water from the well this morning for an hour and this afternoon for half an hour and am pleasantly surprised how quickly the pond is filling. I still am hoping that it will be full in another two to three weeks.

Other than attach the pump tomorrow, I hope to begin landscaping the area where the garden shed will be assembled and possibly dig the troughs for the footings and fill those with gravel. The walls were built in the barn this past spring.

One of our apple trees is loaded this year

It's shower time. Sargie will be home after while and I'm one great big ball of mud and clay. It's time to get cleaned up.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Sunday's filter additions

July 28, 2019 - Sunday evening

69 degrees/light rain/calm winds

Pentoga Road

There's not a whole lot that's very interesting to write about tonight. Unless one is into underwater gravel filters, tonight's content can only be described as BLAH.

I was at pond side at first light this morning.

With hot temperatures and high humidity forecast, I started transporting sandbags for the next filter.

Sandbags were stacked and the pipe made ready.

I fastened a piece of heavy plastic over the end of the perforated pipe so the pump will be forced to draw water through the gravel under which it is buried.

The next step was to cover everything with landscape cloth.

And finally, gravel was carried in, one bucketful at a time, until the filter was full.

 After taking a mid day break, I started work on the third and last filter. It didn't begin very well.



Finally, the first two layers of bags were set in place and landscape cloth laid over the pipe.

I finally quit late this afternoon when light rain began to fall. Another layer of sandbags needs to be added to the last filter before the gravel is added. After that, all the pond needs is the pump and of course, water.

I did run water from the well this morning for an hour and was happy to see the lowest filter is now completely submerged.

Sargie was home early and we've had a quiet evening. She's spent tonight packing for our Wednesday's flight to the East Coast. My bride opens the Vision Center Monday morning.

Depending on the weather, I hope to finish the last filter on Monday. Otherwise, there's a shop calling to me and I wouldn't mind taking a morning stroll.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

A butterfly on one of the blooming onions

July 27, 2019 - Saturday evening
75 degrees/partly cloudy/calm winds
Pentoga Road

I'm writing again tonight in hopes of getting an early start in the morning. I found out earlier today that after being exposed to the bright sun, the black rubber pond liner can be pretty harsh on my delicate feet. Despite plenty of underlayment beneath the rubber liner, I don't dare walk on it any way other than barefoot. Better safe than sorry.

Before I begin talking about the filtration system of the pond, I want to show off our onions. All are three year old plants that remain in the ground through the winter months year after year. Though we eat few onions, I keep the patch mostly for their blooms.

Saturday morning began with making the first pond filter. The first item on the agenda was to secure the sand bags with zip ties to ensure they won't open underwater.

I quickly developed a routine of pulling the fifty pound bags to the edge of the pond in the wagon, slipping off my shoes, then carrying them to the bottom one at a time. 

The flex pipe and rubber liner within the filter (the space between the sandbags and terrace wall) were covered with landscape material.

Once the landscape cloth and sandbags were in place, it was time to begin filling the filter with pea gravel.

Initially, there was no easy way to get gravel to the bottom of the pond. First, it had to be shoveled from the trailer into five gallon buckets.

It was a real slog to pull them over to the pond, lift each out of the wagon, take off my shoes, then walk down one level, pick up a bucket and carry it down two more levels, dump it into the filter, climb back up to retrieve the second bucket, carry it down, dump the gravel, etc. etc.

You get the idea.

It may come as a surprise, but I'm no spring chicken. After carrying fourteen fifty pound sandbags into the depths of the pond, one bag at a time, the buckets filled with gravel were about to do me in.

It was then I put on my old professor's hat and trolled my mind for a deep thought. There HAD to be an easier way. 

Hmm. Hmm.

I got it! How about if I attached a large funnel to the large cardboard tube, the one that the liner was wound around in transit? It would be like a gravel elevator. 

Might one say it was a gravelator? TM <- trademark



George Foreman with his fancy grill has nothing on me. With the gravelator, I was able to pour gravel without having to do any climbing.

The filter filled much faster and it wasn't long before I was in the bottom leveling the gravel.



The next chore was to wrap the bare flex pipe, that which goes from one filter to the next, so the perforations wouldn't draw water without it first going through a gravel filter.

For that, I simply wrapped garbage bags on the bare lengths and secured those with zip ties.

It was well into the afternoon before the lower filter was finished. 

I began carrying and placing sandbags on the next level later in the afternoon, but quickly found the black rubber was too hot and burned the bottoms of my feet. After carrying almost 750 pounds of sandbags and at least that much more of gravel, I quit for the day.

Sargie will be home shortly. Poor girl, she works on Sunday from noon until closing. I sure miss her during these long days when she's working.

I'll be up bright and early Sunday morning to continue on the top filter before the sun gets too high and the liner too hot. After all the digging of the past two months, carrying rocks, and moving dirt, I found I actually enjoyed making the bottom filter today and am looking forward to continuing tomorrow.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Alaska Kurt, Jambo, Mike, Cosmo
The guys are holding the liner, keeping it from falling off the tines as I move it closer to the pond.

July 26, 2019 - Friday evening

71 degrees/clouds/windy

Pentoga Road

It's a mighty happy boy who's writing this evening. The liner and basics of the filtration system are in place. We should have a full fledged, working, pond within the next couple of weeks.

We gathered on the far side of the garden at 10 this morning. Cos took charge throughout the day and even though his official title was Supervisor, he also did most the work.

Cosmo's fixing any small openings in the underlayment.

It took all five of us to pull the eight hundred pound rubber liner over the pond. First, we had to unroll and get it ready.

Then we divided up, grabbed a side, and in tandem, pulled as hard as we could.

After weeks of worrying how we could possibly stretch such a heavy piece of rubber over so large an area, it was anti climatic. Working together, it was done in less than five minutes.

Cos took over, fixing, folding, smoothing, gathering the wrinkles and placing them where they would be out of the way in the future or simply go unnoticed.

As he said, wrinkles can't be helped. It was a square liner that we were fitting into a fairly round hole.

Several hundred gallons of water were added, more to settle the liner than anything else. Cos later pulled against the middle rearranging the slack and wrinkles.

An hour later, the job was pronounced finished. 

I later asked about hose placement for the filter. With a clip board and tablet in hand, Cos began sketching a diagram.

He and Mike spent no small amount of time deciding where the best places might be to place the flex hose that will draw water in through the gravel filters.

Cos sketched and scratched, talked and pointed, before suddenly saying, "Heck with it, let's just make it now."

It took some for him to wrestle a hundred feet of four inch hose. Mike and I kept busy feeding it to Cos as he laid it on the select terraces.

Cos finally pronounced the hose placement finished. I'll place sandbags on the outer edges of the terraces where the filter will be and fill the space with pea gravel. Powered by a large pump, the hose will suck the water through the gravel with the two feet of rock overhead acting as a natural filter.

Jambo and Alaska Kurt had departed earlier. Cos and Mike after. I surely couldn't have done everything by myself, either physically or mentally. My appreciation goes out to all the guys, especially Cos for taking charge.

I made a quick trip to Crystal Falls to see my friend, Becky, and pick up a load of pea gravel.

I'll begin building the first filter Saturday morning. Since it will be the lowest, after its completion, I'll add water to the pond so it will be completely submerged before going onto the next terrace.

I took the time this afternoon to pick a few vegetables from the garden. Though the garden looks good, it would be much more productive is we could just get an inch or two of easy rain spread out over a two day period.

I've been asked multiple times WHY would I go to all the work to make a pond in the garden. It isn't a project, it's an ongoing process and will be that way well into next summer.

All one has to do is look at Cosmo and Mike's pond, the one I fashioned mine after, to know why I HAD to have the same. I had the equipment, I had the time, and thankfully, I had the friends in Cos and Mike to guide me along the way.

This is their pond.

I rest my case.

Sargie is pulling in the drive so it's time to close. She works again on Saturday and closes the Vision Center. I'm going to begin building the deepest filter and hope to complete that by day's end.

Meanwhile, I'm going to sleep like a baby tonight. The hard work is over. Now I can begin to get creative, something I've looked forward to for a long long time.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Walking barefoot, Cos felt a rock under the liner so Mike crawled under while I held it up.