pond

[Yvonne G]

As I told you a couple weeks ago, my tortoise partner (William owns half interest in all my turtles and tortoises) was going to be spending his vacation here with me to dig the sludge out of my pond, instead of going to look at tortoises in South Africa. Well, he and my across-the-street neighbor have been working on the pond for the past two days. What a BIG job! The turtles had dug caves under the bank, and the banks were eroding away in spots.

Here's what it looked like before the project got underway:

Note the large water iris on the right side of the pond. The plant was taking up half the water space and had to come out! What a job that was.

Here's what it looks like at the end of today:

And we found TWO of these:

Another bad close-up picture, sorry! I figured if any eggs ever hatched the big turtles would eat the babies.

My back is breaking and William has to leave on Saturday. I hope we can finish by then. More pictures to come...

(UPDATED 3-24-18) DARNED PHOTOBUCKET! I SHOULD HAVE NEVER USED THEM FOR MY PICTURES, BUT AT THAT TIME, IT WAS HARD TO POST PICTURES USING THE FORUM'S PICTURE THING. SO HERE ARE THE POND PICTURES FROM MY COMPUTER. THEY MIGHT BE OUT OF ORDER, BUT YOU CAN AT LEAST SEE WHAT THIS THREAD WAS ALL ABOUT:

 

[Kristina]

Awwww, what kind of baby is it???

Lookin' good!!!

 

[Len B]

Looks like a lot of work, but it should be worth it in the end. One thing i've noticed by looking at pics of enclosures and now your pond building pics, Almost everyone out west use block (either cinder or cement), Here where I live South East of DC, treated lumber is much more cost efficient than block.When figuring the surface area by sq footage is block cheaper than treated wood or is there another reason block is used instead of wood ? I like water iris, what I do to help control it is keep it in separate pots, the roots do get entangled in time but to remove some just cut the roots and take out what you want, My 2 young emys spend a lot of time hanging out in the leaves. What color blooms do you have ? All mine are yellow. I hope it's not as hot there as it is here 90s today thru friday.(to hot to build a pond) Good Luck: Len --9:25 PM 84 degrees outside now----

 

[Jacqui]

Wow what a project!

Len, doesn't the wood rot rather quickly? I moved away from using wood as it seems like it only lasts for about ten years and I am simply lazy and cheap, so I want what I fix to last longer then that.

 

[jdawn]

Ouch, after looking at the pics-- I want to take some ibuprofen for you!

 

[Len B]

Wow what a project!

Len, doesn't the wood rot rather quickly? I moved away from using wood as it seems like it only lasts for about ten years and I am simply lazy and cheap, so I want what I fix to last longer then that.

I have a pond at the house in Maryland that I built in 1988 and the wood is still good.I don't use what they call landscaping timbers for long lasting projects. I use the treated 2x4,6,8,10 or 12s, the landscapers do rot away quickly.

 

[Candy]

I'm loving this thread and the pictures. I always love it when people show you step by step how to build something. Can't wait for the rest of the pictures Yvonne. Wow you don't have to cook them dinner after all this work do you?

 

[Tom]

Is he still going to S.A.? Can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[Yvonne G]

No, William gave up on S.A. this time, but I'll bet he'll go next year.

The pond was outlined with 2x8's before, and that was from way back about 15 years ago...so the wood lasted quite a long time. However, the turtles had gotten in under the wood and started digging out the bank. So it had to be "refreshed."

No...I'm not buying anyone any dinners. But I'm SO appreciative of all the hard work. I help a little, but William has his own idea about how it needs to be done, and its better if I stay out of it!! So, I'm the gofer.

The baby turtle is a Florida soft shell. Its just the cutest little thing!!!

 

[GotTurtles]

Wow Yvonne. Looks a lot different than when i was there last month. Im sure its gonna turn out great. Cant wait to see it all done.

 

[Kristina]

The baby turtle is a Florida soft shell. Its just the cutest little thing!!!

Oh yes, they are!!! I love softshells.

Are you going to head start the babies, now that you found them, to keep the adults from harassing them?

How is your hilari dealing with the rebuild? lol.

 

[Yvonne G]

I gave one of the babies to my across-the-street neighbor, Dana. He keeps snakes (has some pretty big ones), and he has a desert tortoise that he adopted from me. (I'm slowly converting him to turtles and tortoises.) He also has made a nice pond in his front yard out of the bottom of a large garbage dumpster, has a filter and water fall and everything, and he has a red-bellied turtle in there. The other hatchling I gave to my daughter. She loves the soft shells. Used to have one, but he somehow escaped her pond area and they were never able to find it. So, that's a big "whew!" moment for me. I don't have to set up a baby aquarium!

 

[Yvonne G]

Here are a couple more pictures. Digging out the sludge and we'll have to smooth out the banks and I've got to add a few more bricks at the landing area.

In this one,Dosilyn ( the little girl) is standing up on the pile of sludge, the bottom of the pond after the water has evaporated, and her dad (my across-the-street neighbor) is standing down in the catfish hole. As you can see, he's about 4 feet down below Dosilyn...a nice deep hole for the turtles, especially when it was filled with sludge.

digging out the sludge. (Oh yeah, she was a BIG help )

still digging out the sludge, but the plastic drums are set in place to see how the look and fit.

Now the barrels have been cut off, filled with cement chunks, and planted with a cat tail in one and a mini-papyrus in another. I don't know yet what I'm going to plant in the third one. I'm hoping that the water level will come up almost to the top of the barrels, that way it can be another landing for the turtles.

 

[Candy]

I was hoping that you had updated and you did. Is that child labor that I'm seeing? I'm really loving the photos and being able to see it step by step. I can't wait to see the finished pond. That is sooooo much work.

 

[Jacqui]

How much bigger will this make your pond? How deep is it now in the "hole"?

 

[Yvonne G]

The cinderblocks are following the original outline of the pond, so in that respect, it won't be any bigger, but it will be slightly smaller because the blocks are wider than the original wood. The deepest hole, where my neighbor is standing in the hole is appx 4' deep. The sides at the cinderblock will be about 2' deep and it slopes down to that deep hole. It is about 3' deep where the barrels are. Here's a picture of it while its filling up. I put the cat tail in one of the barrels, a dwarf papyrus in another, and I'm going to the nursery to buy another bog plant for the 3rd barrel.

 

[terryo]

I see that you didn't cement the cinderblocks together, and there's no pond liner, so how will the pond retain the water? Won't it seep out? Also...no filter? I'm thinking this is a natural pond.....something I always wanted to do.

 

[Yvonne G]

My daughter and her family used to live in this house, and my Son-in-law had a friend with a back hoe, so he asked the friend to come over and dig him a big hole so he could add a duck pond. So, its just a big hole dug in the ground and filled with water. The soil is red clay and very hard. Because it was just a big hole in the ground, the turtles were able to dig into the banks and cause them to erode. So really all we did to change the pond was to reinforce the banks and dig out the sludge (turtle poop, leaves and debris). Before the project was started, the sludge had built up to within 3" of the top of the pond, so there was only about 3" of swimming water for the turtles and fish. I had to add water every day. But now that its back down to the original red clay bottom, I probably won't have to add water but once a week. I pump my water out of the ground, so what doesn't evaporate into the air, seeps back down into the ground and probably back into my water supply (m-m-m, tasty!!)

 

[terryo]

Yikes!!! My friend has a natural pond...no turtles though, and it's as clear as if he had a strong filter. Lots of plants...few fish, frogs....beautiful. I always wanted one.

 

[Candy]

Can't wait to see it finished. I love this thread I look at it everyday to see the progress. I can't believe the amount of work this must have taken.