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...