I had to go back to my day job last Thursday, and the Urban Escapes crew started placing rocks around the rim of the pond. When I got home that evening, there some issues with the how the liner was laying in the pond. I stayed home on Friday and we pulled up the rocks and re-adjusted the liner. In a pond of this size you can’t get it perfect but I was satisfied with the results. We got pretty good at patching  holes as well; moving big rocks around can be hard on these liners. By the end of the day we were running out of big rocks we could easily manhandle and the crew wrapped up.

While some folks went on vacation over the Memorial day weekend, my dad and I put on our plumbers’ cracks and started plumbing the vault. This type of plumbing is a lot like figuring out a puzzle. We only have so much space and we have to be efficient about how we use it. By the end of Saturday, we had plumbed in the bottom drains. On Sunday, we began planning how to route the water from the skimmer and completed about 50% of that run. On Monday, my wife and I plumbed the spillways and glued up the first two air lines.

Today (Monday), Lino from Urban Escapes came over in the morning and asked me to take a look at some rocks they have in their yard. We ran out of easily placed boulders on Friday and they were hoping they had a good match among the extras from other jobs. And boy were they a good match- I can’t really tell the difference between the two types of rock. I went off to work. When I got home today, the pond was looking fantastic.

Once the Urban Escapes crew left for the day I ran over to Grovers and picked up the parts I needed finish plumbing the last air line and start plumbing the water return into the pond. This went fairly quickly and I was able to get the last airline finished and start figuring out the drain. Near the end of the day I decided to hook up the Matala/Hakko 120L air pump and see if the airlines were in good shape. I let Molly flip the switch for the first time and our pond took its first breath.

Tomorrow the crew will finish placing rocks so they can return the trackhoe and repair the irrigation lines they had to dig up and cut. When I get home from work tomorrow I will continue to plumb the vault. It feels like we’re finally in the final stretch and we’re planning to have the fish back in the pond next weekend.