#Thegreatpoolpondconversion - 201206
We made some good progress these last two weeks.
And we were hit with a few significant setbacks.
So another ‘the best of times, the worst of times’.
The papaya lost all its leaves. The shock from falling? The flooding? Who knows. Then small leaves started to grow at the top and on the branches (most papayas dont have branches. Ours has 3 (it had 4)). Days later the leaves fell off.
Yesterday the tree broke in half and fell. Way higher than where we built our supports, so at least they worked ;-). When we have time to examine it, we may be able to tell if it never had a chance or what. Meanwhile, because we’ve been throwing all our kitchen compost into the field for years, 3 or four papayas have sprouted up on their own. (That way is much easier). Meantime we started growing a mango inside much the same way we grew this papaya.
Last Saturday - 201205 we got more paint onto the deck. Should be one more can to go.
The waterwheel was not going to work with the discharge pipe so low and the wheel hanging so far into the water, so a new test frame and two pvc elbows into the discharge and we have a working wheel.
This gives us a good idea where we’re headed when we move the filter tower. As with everything else there will be more tweaks. And of course that white pipe won’t show. It’ll be a wooden chute.
Due to Saturday’s 17 miler, Sunday was a work but take it easy day.
Some tweaks to the shower inside the top filter bin - nothing to see.
And we cleaned the filters for the first time (isnt this riveting stuff?) Surprise! They work like they should - the ‘fine’ one way dirtier than the coarse, and at least so far the pond isnt generating a lot of muck.
The waterfall pump stopped working. Not fixable so another one is on order. We’ll reinstall with longer wires and longer hose and put the pump down in the bottom of the pond rather than behind the rock on the top shelf under the falls. Pulling water from farther and deeper should create more ‘flow’ - like the filter pump does.
Remember the pump was in a black plastic paint can. When we pulled the pump we learned we have snails. They may have come in as eggs in the water with the fish. Otherwise no idea.
There are also polywogs. Hundreds. We know how they got here.
And just yesterday we noticed baby fish.
We know how they got here too, but can’t yet identify which type they are.
Here’s an index of all the postings in #thegreatpoolpondconversion