Thursday, June 25, 2009

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

3 comments:

  1. Beautiful BUT I would have been hollaring 'DH, DH' for that project. TTFN ~Marydon

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  2. So - does the bubbling urn work?

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  3. The bubbling urn works sort of. I had envisioned a more bubbling effect, and someday might get it, but what I have now is a cascading urn. If I want it to bubble I have to take out the rubber hose and put in a metal pipe to the top of the urn. I would have to nut it in place with metal and rubber washers to center it. The rubber hose droops to one side and until I yanked the extention out the water just spilled over one side. Now it is about 3 inches long and the water slowly cascades over the top.
    I like it. It is very soothing and the birds love it. I have made a slope down to the water with flat rocks and the birds come down and get drinks and even take baths because they can stand in the shallow part.
    I don't know if I will ever try to 'bubble' my urn or if I will leave it this way. Certainly will for this year.
    BTW my DH will have nothing to do with the pond. I do all the moving of rocks and cleaning etc. He watches and will bring up the shop vac from the basement for me. However he did help me move the urn which is fairly weighty.
    NC

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