It's The Final Countdown...

By Alternativeeden @markngaz
Those of a similar age to me will probably be thinking about the hit song by Europe at this point...

But that's not what I am referring to but rather we are on the final few things to do before filling the pond. I had hoped we would be able to get finished this weekend but sadly the winter weather that has arrived had other plans for us

Its not even as if there is much left to do; only a little woodwork to the pergola bases and then fitting the window into the pond. But for the sealant to set correctly around the window we need warmer temperatures, so that will have to wait. We even had a friend from our koi club lined up to help us fit it.


We had also started building the deck last weekend but again, with the cold weather and expected snow, will stop us from doing any more on that this weekend.

Lining up the joists


Fastening it all together. The white noggins were left over pieces from building the pergola.


Admiring my handiwork.

The final job we had started was removing the left over chalk and clay from when we dug the pond. Most of it was taken away last weekend, but I don't really fancy trying to dig into frozen soil this time.


Most of this pile has now gone.


The filter house itself is also nearly complete, subject to testing for drips when we fill everything with water. 

Talking of water one small job that we may be able to get done is fitting a water connection into the filter house. This will allow us to top up the pond from the filters rather than having to have a hose trailing into the pond. I haven't quite decided how we will do this, possibly by having a hose reel in the filter house itself such as these on the Easy Watering website. The other way may be to have a connection outside and then bring through a house with a spray gun on the end.


With it cold outside this week Mark has been doing one job a little bit at a time each evening. The small water feature will have a mulch of slate on the base, but as anyone who has added slate to the garden will know it tends to be very dusty. As we don't want the filter to get full of slate dust, Mark has been washing this in advance of putting it in the small pond. 

Small water feature


So rather then get frustrated by the winter, the best thing will be to just embrace it, and find other jobs to do in the garden or have a day out somewhere else. 


Has the song got out of your mind yet? Just in case it has, here it is again!! :)

 Gaz