Cleaning the 'water feature'

Hi there Mary,

I have spent this week, since Monday, working on the 'pond' in my backyard. On Monday I cleaned out the eight inches of vile smelling muck that 3 years of total indifference had deposited in it. My was that a job. I started with the wet vac but ended up in it, tossing the muck out with my hands as it was too thick to vacuum. Think of a really thick black milkshake. Yes, that's right. Yuck!

Once I had most of it out I ran the hose in there and thinned the remainder enough that I could use the wet vac again.

I had to move quite a few rocks out of the pond in order to vacuum. It seems something tossed them in last winter. Probably while trying to catch all my missing goldfish. Those fish and their descedents had been in there since Christy helped me buy them when she was seven...(is that 18 years?). I blame the creature at the top of the previous post. Or maybe her and some friends.
Once it was empty I rearranged all the rocks and, hardest of all, created a "level" spot to put my 'bubbling urn'. I chose this one because I liked the way the glaze oozed down the urn sides. Just like I hope the water will if I am ever finished with this idea of mine.

Everyday since then has been an attempt to get the urn ready and in the pond.

On Tuesday I bought a carbide drill for drilling a hole in the square base I wanted the urn to stand on. It is just to the right of the urn in the above picture. I also called Flair Fountains in Minneapolis to ask them questions about how to plug the hole in the urn enough to just allow the water tube through it.

On Wednesday I drilled the base and used silicone glue to block the holes in the urn and to attach the plug and the drilled base to the urn. I thought I was being really smart to postition the urn over an open space on the porch so it wouldn't push the water tube out of postion.

This morning I was all ready to place the urn, but when I took it off the porch I saw I had miscalculated my positioning and the water tube had been pushed up into the urn and siliconed in place.

Dammit to hell.
So after trying to get it in place for about fifteen minutes Jim asked why we didn't pull out the plug and try again. Nope the plug wouldn't move. Then Jim suggested we pull out the water tube. YES!!!. So I cut another tube and we recemented it in place and now I am waiting for it to cure (24 hours) before we try to place it again tomorrow morning.

((((sigh)))))

I am really excited to see how this works.

I have some pretty plants to place in the quack grass around the pond. They are actually hardy to zone three so they may last if the woodchuck, rabbit and deer don't eat them first.

So now I am waiting for tomorrow to put the 'bubbling urn' in place and see if it works.

Love,

Nancy