#Thegreatpoolpondconversion - 200126
We are still pulling about 4-6 gallons of water a day.
We’re digging a little deeper as we go, and pounding the boards down further an inch at a time.
The center layer of sand is probably still a foot and a half from the actual bottom of the pool, so there’s a ways to go.
We can see the water level dropping each day, so there’s definite progress.
At 7 o’clock in the picture, just in the shadow, you can see some cave in behind the boards. That’s what we’re trying to keep from happening on a large scale and under the walls.
We saw the finish line ahead and so we worked longer than usual; about 2.5-3 hours.
Then in our hungry, cranky and wearied state we were able to say:
DONE!
Yes. The shelves are done. The sandbagging, the back filling, the pounding, is all (almost) over.
After some lunch and a shower we celebrated with well earned napping.
This is the the first big ‘done’ in a long while. Second overall, after the great leveling back around July 22, 2019.
There were mini done’s along the way - the first wall, finishing the first wall’s backfill, the second wall, etc.
In our master plan, this was written as one line “build the shelves”.
Of course there were detailed documents with notes, plans, steps, outlines and such, but in the main doc it’s just one line we get to check off.
We’re about a third of the way through the pond timeline (yeah right), and maybe ½ of the heavy work.
We’re definitely done with the heaviest work - moving tons of sand.
Overall, it feels like about a third through the entire project. That includes the pond, building some raised wildflower and butterfly weed beds, fencing, etc. Some of which we can tackle after we fill the pond while it ‘ferments’ for a while.
There’s maybe 6 yards of sand left on the driveway. We’ll use that to fill in some of the ruts that Anthony and Vinnie left with the bobcat way back when.
We’ll start working on the order for the liner and the rocks while we continue to bail.
The bailing will determine when we can start installing the liner. After the well runs dry first we’ll have to fill and recompact that section of the sand floor.
And there’s still lots to do in preparation and some side steps we can move up, if it comes to that.
Something interesting may have happened to last week’s post. Views spiked. By a lot. So thanks to everyone who’s been following our exploits week by week since the beginning. And for recent arrivals, there’s an index to all the past posts.
The sand shelves took us six months to build, working only about two hours every Sunday.
Stay tuned as things should become a lot more varied and interesting as we move on.