Saturday, February 14, 2009
The day of the pond
I reported breaking concrete in my last post. I should perhaps explain, in a little more detail, that we have a plan to replace the existing pond in our back garden. The pond was of irregular shape, perhaps 7 feet by 10 feet overall, with a pond liner. There were three main problems with this. First, because of the irregular shape of the pond, there were lots of creases in the pond liner - a thick black rubbery material - and animals were able to eat chunks out of the creases. This mean the thing leaked in dry weather and did interesting things in wet weather when lots of water got underneath the liner. Second, we are infested with duck weed as a result of having been given a pond plant some years ago. Third, we don't seem to be able to get the water lily right. The first one took over the pond and the second one, while of more modest size, had a large fat root which insisted on floating lead bud uppermost, with the result that a good proportion of the lily leaves are sticking up in the air rather than floating gracefully on the water. So, one fine day we decided that it had to go, to be replaced, as it turns out, by three heavy black round plastic tubs of various sizes and depths. (Maybe there is a more felicitous order of adjectives here. Maybe I should have turned one sentence into two). And having done the concrete lump last week and the two layers of liner being entirely removed, yesterday we decided it was time to plant a tub.
At which point I learn a modest something about what it might have been like in the trenches in the first war. Digging out a hole perhaps three feet across and two feet deep when the bottom of the hole is six inches in a muddy soup. Boots sinking slowly into the edges of the hole. Great sucking noises when you try to move them. Small risk that your foot will come out of the boot, leaving the boot in the mud. Trousers covered in mud. Spade handle covered in mud - which makes it most unpleasant to work with. Have to climb out of mud hole and go and wash it down using the freezing cold water from the rain water tub by the back door. Gets harder and harder to get anything out of the bottom of the hole, partly because of the depth and partly because of hitting a layer of flints in the soft yellow clay. Spade not the best implement for the job; perhaps I should have invested in the sort of trenching tool you can buy in shops which cater for people who like playing army and which used to be stocked by the army - army surplus stores. At least the clay was soft: in the summer it goes rock hard and one would need a pneumatic drill to make a hole this size in less than a day.
Eventually, bite the bullet, and climb into the hole, standing on one of the stones which used to line the edge of the pond. Digging now rather easier on back, the only catch being that one winds up standing on a stone island. How does one move the stone so that one can dig away underneath while still standing on it? Or not otherwise getting wet feet?
After an hour or two of this have a hole of about the right size. Off to Wickes - which despite my dislike of the place - is probably the best place around here to buy sand after midday on a Saturday. Back with 10 bags of the stuff at £15. Probably a better deal for us that one of those half cubic metre carrier bags you can get for about £40. The latter would have got one more sand for one's buck but would have meant having the stuff on the front lawn for days if not weeks and having a lot left over at the end. And, anyway, no-one was going to deliver a carrier bag at that time of day. Had to get on while the force was with me. So 25kg bags had it. Poured three of then into the mud hole. Floated the largest black tub in the now sandy soup. Quite level as one's school physics suggests it should be. Fill with water to bed it down and make sure that it does not gently float upwards. Pleased to find it stays level. Chuck more sand into the soup surrounding the tub, the idea being that bedding in sand is better than bedding in clay.
Then onto the next tub, this one being slightly wider and a lot less deep. Roughly dig a hole of the right sort of dimensions; much drier this one. Most of the water must have gone into the deep hole. But plenty of stinking black ooze to make up. Decide that I have done enough for the day and retire to bath.
The big shallow tub might be a bit harder to get in. There won't be the same weight of water to bed it down, nice and level and there is the additional problem that we want all three tubs to finish at the same level; this being a key part of the design. But a key problem for the second and subsequent tubs. How can you be sure that a tub is going to finish up level with its neighbour when you are floating it in liquid mud? Further report on this point in due course.
At which point I learn a modest something about what it might have been like in the trenches in the first war. Digging out a hole perhaps three feet across and two feet deep when the bottom of the hole is six inches in a muddy soup. Boots sinking slowly into the edges of the hole. Great sucking noises when you try to move them. Small risk that your foot will come out of the boot, leaving the boot in the mud. Trousers covered in mud. Spade handle covered in mud - which makes it most unpleasant to work with. Have to climb out of mud hole and go and wash it down using the freezing cold water from the rain water tub by the back door. Gets harder and harder to get anything out of the bottom of the hole, partly because of the depth and partly because of hitting a layer of flints in the soft yellow clay. Spade not the best implement for the job; perhaps I should have invested in the sort of trenching tool you can buy in shops which cater for people who like playing army and which used to be stocked by the army - army surplus stores. At least the clay was soft: in the summer it goes rock hard and one would need a pneumatic drill to make a hole this size in less than a day.
Eventually, bite the bullet, and climb into the hole, standing on one of the stones which used to line the edge of the pond. Digging now rather easier on back, the only catch being that one winds up standing on a stone island. How does one move the stone so that one can dig away underneath while still standing on it? Or not otherwise getting wet feet?
After an hour or two of this have a hole of about the right size. Off to Wickes - which despite my dislike of the place - is probably the best place around here to buy sand after midday on a Saturday. Back with 10 bags of the stuff at £15. Probably a better deal for us that one of those half cubic metre carrier bags you can get for about £40. The latter would have got one more sand for one's buck but would have meant having the stuff on the front lawn for days if not weeks and having a lot left over at the end. And, anyway, no-one was going to deliver a carrier bag at that time of day. Had to get on while the force was with me. So 25kg bags had it. Poured three of then into the mud hole. Floated the largest black tub in the now sandy soup. Quite level as one's school physics suggests it should be. Fill with water to bed it down and make sure that it does not gently float upwards. Pleased to find it stays level. Chuck more sand into the soup surrounding the tub, the idea being that bedding in sand is better than bedding in clay.
Then onto the next tub, this one being slightly wider and a lot less deep. Roughly dig a hole of the right sort of dimensions; much drier this one. Most of the water must have gone into the deep hole. But plenty of stinking black ooze to make up. Decide that I have done enough for the day and retire to bath.
The big shallow tub might be a bit harder to get in. There won't be the same weight of water to bed it down, nice and level and there is the additional problem that we want all three tubs to finish at the same level; this being a key part of the design. But a key problem for the second and subsequent tubs. How can you be sure that a tub is going to finish up level with its neighbour when you are floating it in liquid mud? Further report on this point in due course.
# posted by Jim @ 11:53 PM 
