#Thegreatpoolpondconversion - 201101
This post is in three parts.
- The Normal Stuff
Sunday might have been a good day to paint the deck. Instead things happened.
This weekend’s forecast is not good either, what with Eta not knowing what it/she wants to do.
Saturday was more prep work on the filter.
Sunday was the papaya tree rescue.
It’s been four months and no filter. No filtering was the original plan.
The fish seem fine.
Some of the plants did not do so well; probably weren’t really water based.
We can’t see the oxygenators on the bottom…yet.
So no filtration and natural balancing seems to be working.
We’re still putting the filter in because it will contribute, and waterwheel!
Here’s a picture of the waterfall from the far side.
The Keys100, the WWF Species Step Challenge and my unbroken running streak all ended on Saturday.
For the WWF, I finished 27th in miles, 70th in total steps. Many people wear their watches all day. I don’t.
As for the Keys100, it turns out 100 in 10 is *something*. Certainly doable. Wouldn’t want to continue that much running.
13 runners did the official (and insane)100 miles in 32 hrs or less. The winner did it in 21.5 hours.
236 folks are doing 100 miles in 50 days, that’s ongoing through the 19th or so.
Out of the 74 who ran the 100 in 10, I managed to come in 5th. On an age adjusted basis, I squeak up to 4th.
The fastest runner over 60 years old bested me by 3 seconds per mile.
Klys finished a scorching 13th!
At 204 days, my running every day streak came to an end.
The next event will (hopefully) be the in person A1A marathon next Valentine’s day.
So now begins the long, slow, focused climb to 26.2 honed readiness.
It’s necessary to follow a program with rest days and cross training days.
Sunday was the first - a long overdue and well earned sleep late / running day off.
This kind of brute force racking up the miles running is neither easy nor difficult. 10 a day is probably past my actual limit and i think doing much more of it would begin to wear me down. I’m looking forward to less miles, more targeted, focused, and goal oriented running for a while.
- This Should Take 30 Minutes
Take a look back at the 12/8/19 posting here and read about our papaya tree.
This chapter of the story goes back a few weeks to the heavy rains that flooded the whole neighborhood.
So much rain and wind that the papaya started tilting.
We got some ropes and tie downs and braced it pretty well.
More rain, more tilt.
Sunday would have been a good day to paint the deck.
We figured 30 minutes to re-brace the tree and then we’d start painting.
So we pounded some stakes into the ground and started to move the ropes and, well, we didn’t do it right and down went the tree.
The roots are very shallow and the rains just eroded whatever it was holding on to.
We couldn’t let it lie there.
We raised it from a pup. Actually seeds from a store bought papaya years ago.
So we wracked, and thought and considered what we could do with what we had.
Then we got our trusty neighbor Angel who you should remember from cactus moving days.
Between the three of us and some physics, we were able to lift the top end of the tree, get a ladder under it, lift more, move the ladder etc., toward the base.
We used Angel’s golf cart as an ox.
It took a while, though less time than you might think, and we got it righted - at least for now/then.
More guy wires and that was that.
There aren’t any action shots because it took all three of us and *WE WERE LIFTING A 500# TREE!*
On Monday there were high winds, also forecast through the week.
Those ropes wouldn’t be enough. So we built a pretty standard set of palm tree braces.
Now it’s rock solid.
Just in time for more wind, rain and whatever remnants of Eta come along.
While the 500 pound behemoth was on the ground we took the liberty…
- The Filter
The filter is about half done.
On Saturday we finished prepping the filter bins, pump, hoses and solar connections.
Here are a couple of pictures. Don’t worry it will all become clear next week.
This is the top bin where the water comes in.
The bottom of these white pipes are drilled with holes.
The water will shower down onto a set of filter pads and lava rock.
(Remember that lava rock is very porous. It has a lot of surface area for beneficial bacteria to colonize and grow.)
It will then trickle through the holes in the bottom of the bin.
(The T’s pointing up are in case all the holes in all the pipes get clogged, so it doesn’t back up. Not likely.)
The water will then trickle into the top of this bin under the top bin.
It’s empty now, but this bin will be filled up with lava rock.
Here’s the inside.
There will be a third bin under this one exactly the same.
Finally, on the bottom will be this bin:
It’ll also be filled with lava rock.
As the water fills up, it will drain into the white pipe and then out the bulkhead back into the pond.
Next week’s pictures will make it all very clear.
After putting all this together we ran a final empty test.
The sun just went down due to threatening rain clouds but there was enough solar juice for a more or less successful run.
Next we wash a bunch of lava rock, fill the bins and let ‘er go.
Here’s an index of all the postings in #thegreatpoolpondconversion