Post by Roger on May 24, 2013 9:25:10 GMT -5
Hello all!
It has been a long'ish while since I have visited the boards, tumbled some rocks, or started cabbing after acquiring my saws. I have been tackling some projects around the house. Basically, trying to finish putting in my yard. We built a house two years ago, this month, and I foolishly decided I would do 100% of the landscaping myself.."how hard could it be?"..oh yes, those famous last words..
With hand tools, I have excavated well over 100cy of caliches and fractured limestone. I have purchased and spread 175cy of loam, top soil, mulch, gravel, and decomposed granite. I cut 10, 25cy truckloads of cedar and scrub brush. During the process I broke 4 wheel barrows, 2 ROCKBARS! (how do you break a rock bar??) several shovels, 3 fingers, and 1 toe..it has been an interesting learning experience lol.
The final large project I had to do was a pond, which I finished last weekend. The project has consumed all my free time for several months. I designed it and put it in myself. Other than the liner and placing the larger rocks, I put it in alone.
I have never done a pond, or any landscaping projects until now. I honestly thought it was going to be simpler to do than it actually was. It might have been a little easier were it not for my back, which I have broken twice and is now mostly screws, pins, and a rod lol..Obviously, I am not brightest bulb in the fixture...anyway, I am proud of the pond. It exceeded my expectations by quite a bit when I finished it.
Here are some photos of the process.
The begining...it looked so innocent..
The digging begins..I had access for 4 hours to a small front end loader which I used to start the main pool. I roughed out what I could in the time I had it, the rest was done by hand with a shovel, pickaxe, rock bars, and a jack hammer..no idea what the hell I was thinking when I started this!
Starting on the upper, shallow pond, dressing out the sides of the lower, building a deep ledge and deepening the lower pond. Lower pond dimensions 40-48" water depth and roughly 22'x15' oval shape. Upper pond is 14'x8' and 18"-24" deep.
Skimmer is set, I have most of the small rock moved to pond and have the liner started. I shave started stacking the rock on the lower pond and still need to set the filter fall and finish dressing out the upper pond. Stacking the rock...this was a lot harder than I thought it would be..
Finished!! Okay, so I am not quite done..I still have to wire the electrical lines into the junctions at the house and finish the plumbing to fill the pond automatically ..but, come on, I am close enough to say it!
Upper pond and filter fall.
Spillway/water fall from upper to lower pond.
Lower pond.
I still have a few minor items to wrap up on the pond. I am working on lighting, the plumbing to fill it, and putting in some planting beds around it. I am also still putting
down landscape fabric over the remaining yard and spreading decomposed granite over the top. Once those items are complete, I am DONE with projects and will only
be doing maintenance..until I get bored. Until that happens, I am really looking forward to relaxing, working on some rocks, and learning how to cab!
Thanks for looking!
Roger
It has been a long'ish while since I have visited the boards, tumbled some rocks, or started cabbing after acquiring my saws. I have been tackling some projects around the house. Basically, trying to finish putting in my yard. We built a house two years ago, this month, and I foolishly decided I would do 100% of the landscaping myself.."how hard could it be?"..oh yes, those famous last words..
With hand tools, I have excavated well over 100cy of caliches and fractured limestone. I have purchased and spread 175cy of loam, top soil, mulch, gravel, and decomposed granite. I cut 10, 25cy truckloads of cedar and scrub brush. During the process I broke 4 wheel barrows, 2 ROCKBARS! (how do you break a rock bar??) several shovels, 3 fingers, and 1 toe..it has been an interesting learning experience lol.
The final large project I had to do was a pond, which I finished last weekend. The project has consumed all my free time for several months. I designed it and put it in myself. Other than the liner and placing the larger rocks, I put it in alone.
I have never done a pond, or any landscaping projects until now. I honestly thought it was going to be simpler to do than it actually was. It might have been a little easier were it not for my back, which I have broken twice and is now mostly screws, pins, and a rod lol..Obviously, I am not brightest bulb in the fixture...anyway, I am proud of the pond. It exceeded my expectations by quite a bit when I finished it.
Here are some photos of the process.
The begining...it looked so innocent..
The digging begins..I had access for 4 hours to a small front end loader which I used to start the main pool. I roughed out what I could in the time I had it, the rest was done by hand with a shovel, pickaxe, rock bars, and a jack hammer..no idea what the hell I was thinking when I started this!
Starting on the upper, shallow pond, dressing out the sides of the lower, building a deep ledge and deepening the lower pond. Lower pond dimensions 40-48" water depth and roughly 22'x15' oval shape. Upper pond is 14'x8' and 18"-24" deep.
Skimmer is set, I have most of the small rock moved to pond and have the liner started. I shave started stacking the rock on the lower pond and still need to set the filter fall and finish dressing out the upper pond. Stacking the rock...this was a lot harder than I thought it would be..
Finished!! Okay, so I am not quite done..I still have to wire the electrical lines into the junctions at the house and finish the plumbing to fill the pond automatically ..but, come on, I am close enough to say it!
Upper pond and filter fall.
Spillway/water fall from upper to lower pond.
Lower pond.
I still have a few minor items to wrap up on the pond. I am working on lighting, the plumbing to fill it, and putting in some planting beds around it. I am also still putting
down landscape fabric over the remaining yard and spreading decomposed granite over the top. Once those items are complete, I am DONE with projects and will only
be doing maintenance..until I get bored. Until that happens, I am really looking forward to relaxing, working on some rocks, and learning how to cab!
Thanks for looking!
Roger