Old Fish Pond, The

The Old Fish Pond

August 13, 2006

In our back yard was a fish pond. It was left by the previous owners before they started renting the house. There were koi in the pond but one of the renters killed them by throwing them against the house one day while drunk. When we moved into the house, we drained the pond to eliminate the mosquito larva but had to keep draining it every time it rained. We eventually decided to lift the liner out of the ground and turn it over the hole to prevent more water getting into the pond. This did not actually work, but there were no mosquito larva in the covered water of the hole.

On August 13, 2006, while I was mowing the lawn, my wife decided it was time to fill the hole. I had other projects in mind, but hers took president. The catch with this project is that we did not have a wheel barrow. We did have a dirt pile that we can utilize for this project, but getting the dirt from the pile to the hole is a project in itself. In order to get around the problem of the wheelbarrow, we decided to use a hand truck that we purchased back when we regularly moved for our previous employer, and a polyvinyl storage tub. The tub is the type readily available at any discount retail outlet for storing items in the basement or attic. This tub was one of the deep ones that we used many times when moving.

In September, we managed to find a pickax at a reasonable price so we purchased one. We knew it would be needed in later projects, and this project was no exception. If it were not for the pickax, I would still be filling in that hole instead of writing about the project. Last on the list of tools are the shovel and rake.

In the simplest of procedures, we broke up the pile of dirt for easy shoveling and moved it to the hole with the tub and hand truck. It took about a dozen tubs to fill the hole. I did not want to overfill the tub and have a difficult time moving the hand truck or the tub when filling the hole. I did not fill the hole to the top. There was water in the hole that I wanted to have a chance to drain or evaporate from the hole. I also wanted the dirt in the hole to have time to settle. After that, I would take the ground around the old pond break it up and level the area. There was a mound around the pond area, and it is probably from the dirt from the hole. It would have been to difficult to break up the whole area and redistribute it into the hole, but not to level out the area. I will not have to dig as much dirt or as deep to level the ground. There is a fair amount of uneven ground in the back yard, one more hump will not make a difference. As more yard work is done back there, the mound will disappear as earth is redistributed during other projects.

After filling the hole by about 80 to 90 percent, I stepped on the fill and found the dirt to be like quicksand. Obviously the fill needed a chance to eliminate the water. This was a good time to quit filling the hole and for me to check it later.

After a week, the fill was still soft, so I left the hole alone.

Finally, in the second week, I finished the hole. Instead of adding more dirt to the hole from the mound, I took the garden fork and broke up the ground around the hole and raked the area level. Most of the dirt that came from making the hole was piled around the pond. The dirt's settling left a small mound that raised the edge of the pond. This allowed the pond liner to sit proud of ground level and prevent runoff water from entering and polluting the pond. So, by breaking up the old pond edging, I was able to level the ground out and finish filling in the hole.

I prepped the area for grass seeding by taking the compost pile of grass clippings and adding a couple of tubs of the compost to the area. I raked the compost into the top layer of dirt and seeded. The grass is growing fine.

Basement

Basement

2006, August 19

Today, I intended to mow the lawn and finish filling in the old fish pond but the weather had other ideas. It decided to rain today.

Instead of outside work, I chose to work on another chore that needed done for the past year. This project involves the basement. When we moved into the house there was a mess in the basement from previous tenants. In place of a security deposit, we cleaned the basement, somewhat.

In stead of cleaning and throwing everything out, we cleaned and placed the debris into tubs to be disposed of at a later date. Some of the materials that needed disposal require special treatment. There were several five-gallon buckets of old unusable paint. There were also several boxes of broken floor tile. The paint was stacked against one wall, so we left it where it was. The tiles, along with other debris, were clean up and placed into the damaged polyvinyl tubs that we used to use for moving. These tile-filled tubs stayed in one corner of the basement until now.

A project that needed done before we paid for special disposal of the paints and tiles was to sort the debris into piles that can be thrown away with the regular trash and the rest. I can probably throw away the tile with the regular trash but it needs to be put in small boxes to avoid ripping bags. That will have to wait until later. This cleanup resulted in five bags of trash waiting to be placed for the trash collector on Wednesday.

I was told that there are places where I can take the pant for safe disposal without paying a high disposal fee. Since I do not have a lot of money, the concept of a little sweat equity for the benefit of getting rid of the paint in my basement is well worth the effort. I have yet to look into the matter of paint disposal, currently it is not a high priority.

***

November 29, 2006

Since I have the habit of starting my writing long before any postings, I have this update. The basement still needs the tile cleared from the basement. I will probably pack it in small boxes and put some out with each week's trash. Simple solution that is inexpensive. Small boxes can be accumulated from many sources without cost.

The paint is another issue. I still have not looked into any collection sites. Perhaps this coming summer I will make the effort.

Drain Pipe Outside the Front of the House

October 29, 2006

Today, the weather was nice enough for me to do more needed work outside of the house before the cold weather set in for the winter. For much of the past week, it has been raining or especially cold. A more determined person may would have done some of these chores in the inclement weather, however I do not feel that compelled to go to such length. Some of the outdoor projects are priorities, but can wait until the following year. When the afternoon turned into a comfortable day, I seized upon the opportunity to try to finish off some of those task.

In a previous post was mentioned that water comes into the basement when it rains. There is a bit of a mystery as to where the water is coming from. The house sits on the highest part of the property and much of the land outside property lines, is below the home's grade. The only exception was on the west side of the house. There was a depression caused by the plants there. It is a simple case of the plants pulling material from the soil, leaving the ground to settle in the absence of the soil's nutrients and

I suspect that the source of the water is the downspout that terminates on the northwest corner of the house. This may not be the whole cause of the problem. There is a part of the land next to the foundation that dips toward the house. I could be that the water that cascades down that side of the house collects in this depression and follows the foundation until the water exits through some missing mortar between the stones. On a previous week, I piled dirt to fill the depression. This did not solve the problem of the water entering the basement.

Today, I dug the drain pipe for the downspout out of the ground. There is a possibility that water accumulated here. Hopefully, removing this pipe will solve the problem. The only other solution would be to dig at that corner of the house to the base of the foundation in an attempt to find the source of the water. I will not know if I have fixed the problem until the next rain.

Rich