Do it yourself

Hehe, thanks guys. But c'mon. It's me lol.

I very nearly made this thread. What DO y'all who have gotten hurt do with your damn self? I understand that there's this "threat" of getting caught doing (insert vague notion of physical activity here), but y'all can't really just be couchin' it up the whole time, right?

Bottom line is I ain't playing that game. When you boil it all down, it's asking me to forfeit my productivity, disregard my physical health becoming fat and weak, and ruin my mental health progress, allll due to fear of one's employer. Of the coercion that if you live your life, we will hurt you.

I get their side. I get the abuse and their need to prevent it. But while Magnum might have 10hr of physical labor video, he won't have a single instance of me extending that arm because I literally can't. I know I'm hurt, doc knows I'm hurt, I've medical imaging that proves I'm hurt. If they want to make an issue out of it, that's their problem.

And yes, I know (assume) they'd win. Don't care. Morally, I am in the right. Beyond that I can't seem to care anymore.

Quote: Face

Hehe, thanks guys. But c'mon. It's me lol.

I very nearly made this thread. What DO y'all who have gotten hurt do with your damn self? I understand that there's this "threat" of getting caught doing (insert vague notion of physical activity here), but y'all can't really just be couchin' it up the whole time, right?

Bottom line is I ain't playing that game. When you boil it all down, it's asking me to forfeit my productivity, disregard my physical health becoming fat and weak, and ruin my mental health progress, allll due to fear of one's employer. Of the coercion that if you live your life, we will hurt you.

I get their side. I get the abuse and their need to prevent it. But while Magnum might have 10hr of physical labor video, he won't have a single instance of me extending that arm because I literally can't. I know I'm hurt, doc knows I'm hurt, I've medical imaging that proves I'm hurt. If they want to make an issue out of it, that's their problem.

And yes, I know (assume) they'd win. Don't care. Morally, I am in the right. Beyond that I can't seem to care anymore.

You remind me of me. For those that know, no explanation is necessary. I couldn't just lay down and die either.

Quote: Face

That's cuz you just get cleaned up pics and 15 minutes of story.

I'm dying right now, just trying to get twisted enough to go to bed lol. The physical part is about as bad as it gets. While the Mantis is a gamechanger and I don't have OG's hatred of wheelbarrows, the constant stooping of digging holes wrecks me. Even more so that my left arm can't lift now, so it just holds as a pivot point to my right arm crane, leaving my back as the engine. I'm. F#$%ing. Dying right now lol

Shoulders that haven't been damaged are housing some pretty exquisite pain, aren't they? All the joints in the body seem to harbor a lot of pain receptor/senders? I hope you are keeping that bent wing in a sling, it really helps, even when you sleep to keep that shoulder immobilized.

If magnum is snapping photo's of your exploits at the pond, [which I get] it would look better to a jury of your peers to see you were at least wearing a bandage and a sling, not to mention how much that helps.

You have to watch out for your own best interest as well, pay attention. There is good reason why magnum is out there watching. None of us likes getting taken by goldbrickers. Which you aren't one of. But for every one of us types, who have it in their dna to be productive, 50 of the other takers are out there, stealing from all of us.

Make it harder to get those types of photo's, think about it. You probably need this income and don't need the hassle. Give your girlfriend a hockey stick, and when you do stupid stuff like exposing yourself, have her whack you in the head. If you get caught, it will have been cheaper to pay her to whack you.

Quote: Face

Hehe, thanks guys. But c'mon. It's me lol.

"I was barely 13 when the company man, tried to dig my daddy's grave"

https://cutediyprojects.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Introduce-Unbeatable-Charm-to-Your-Backyard-with-this-All-Natural-Swimming-Pond.jpg

Here is some inspiration and maybe some tips.

These natural swimming pools are a huge thing in Europe.

Uncle Lucius lol. That got me through Xmas season '17. Great song.

Today was a mess start to finish. It began at 0800 when I realized, hey, there's 12" of frog that supposed to be in my tank that's no longer in my tank, and a bleary eyed, half hearted tearing apart of my newly/partially organized house revealed nothing. Not wanting to piss the day away getting madder and madder, I left him for the time being and tried to get busy.

Tidying up the walls was easy enough, if not tedious. Packing dirt handful by handful until a wall is made takes awhile. That and 0800 was the warmest part of the day. Though sunny, a storm is rolling by and it just got windier and colder as we went. The cold was fine; a bit of bundle and movement and it's perfectly comfortable. But working with 25' x 35' sheets by your lonesome is hell enough. Add 0 - 25mph wind gusting and stopping all damn day and it was just frustrating. With enough rocks, I eventually got the pads in.





Doing the liner... I don't even remember most of it. Think I just blocked it out. But it was bunch of repetition, as this was pulling, making it a true one armed job. Walk 25' pull a corner 2'. Walk 25' to the other side, pull that side 2'. Inch and inch and inch into place. Inch and inch and inch into alignment. Inch and inch and inch to adjustment. I bet I walked 4 mi today lol. Once finally in, I found the widening had nailed the width perfect, a single fold took care of everything. What I didn't realize was just how freaking long this thing is. Had I pulled it first, I could have used the main liner for the entire deal, needing only cut a hole for the bush to pop through. It'd cover the whole thing with room to spare. Oh well. I managed to get the far side folded well, but the front side just had too much extra. All the folds due to the deep end just can't be done right, and it was a lifetime's worth of present wrapping frustration trying to get the two corners to look decent. And then, about the time I did so... it was time to join.

Most of all that had to be pulled back up, as the end of the liner ended on a fold. And with the thing already planted as I had no idea where to measure from, the joint was gonna be done in place. The liner cleaned up easy enough with a gas soaked rag, and the "primer" was naught but rubber cement. Easy enough to work with. The "tape" gave me a giggle and a curse, as it's just a strip of asphalt tar between paper. It's the exact stuff, albeit a bit thinner, that held the damnable Dynomat on my original race car. A bit of a shock and a tinge of grief, but that soon gave way to familiarity and confidence. It was a stressful endeavor trying to keep the fold flat on a natural surface, amidst wind gusts kicking up flaps and contaminants, but save for one end, I managed to get it all spliced and glued and rolled and seamed up nice. The end I pulled apart and totally redid, making it even better than originally completed. And as I then laid it out flat and covered it all in rocks, I've little worry that both, despite the 90min of hassle and stress, will work as intended.

That done and the main liner refolded better than before, alls was left was to plumb the filters. And my custom pipe was too short lol. I cut another and put it on the "stretcher", deciding I had had enough of this for the day. There was not much else to do other than the filter, which I couldn't, and the rock laying, which I just didn't have in me. I laid enough to hold most everything and left the finish for tomorrow.





Dunno what it is about finishing work. I'd rather dig a whole new pond of the same size than just fold and tuck this liner.

There's little more to do but finish plumbing (1hr), and then backfilling the filters as well as the ends of the walls to the river. That'll be a tedious affair, as will be properly placing and sealing the liner into the totes. I'm probably 96% done and this last bit will take me a full day and a half lol. The rocks I think are gonna wait. Besides being completely blown out, I'd like to get some (free) water in there to settle the liner, allowing for adjustment as we go. Hopefully the effort will lead to this being the last planting.

Not to mention that though I for the second time tore my house apart from bedroom to boiler, I STILL have not found that GD frog. How do you even track a frog? My floor is brand new and everything recently got moved and cleaned, I couldn't even track a dust trail. And these ones don't get noisy until May. I'd really like to find him with my eyes instead of my nose, so if any of y'all have ancient frog tracking skills handed down by your elders from the home country, I'm all ears. As of now, all I can think to do is litter the floors of all my rooms with bowls of water surrounded by a sand ring. Hope it'll save his bacon or at least point me in the right place, but other than that, I've no idea.

Are you concerned that the dog got, or will get, the frog?

Mildly. Froggo's been here 2yrs now, and is likely the biggest one I've attracted yet. I rather enjoy watching his nightly hunting forays and have become somewhat attached. Plus, I was just trying to do him a solid. I pulled up his hibernation spot when there was still hard water about. Since everything was solid, all foliage gone and no water nearby, not to mention all the dogs, outdoor and feral cats, coons, skunks, hawks, and every other thing that's everywhere around here, I figured it was a death sentence. I don't much like keeping terrestrial things as I've lost too many crays to escapes, but figured I just needed a week. Made him a floating tote lid to get him out of the water and near the warm light, fed him 10+ goldfish, thought I had him all set up. Now this. Grrr.

There are no toxic frogs in NY, so if Cuauhtémoc ate him, then he's just ate. But Moke is a maniac, I can't see how he'd get away with it. There's too much pomp and circumstance in his hunting to do it surreptitiously, and we've been attached at the hip since I got hurt. I kind of hope he did as I'd rather supplement his diet than find a desiccated closet corpse in 5yrs, but I just can't see how.

A stunning majority of my loose crays all die in the furnace room. I can only surmise that they follow the sound of water in the pipes. At this point, waiting and hoping is about my only option. We did have an issue with the beagle the other day; Little Brother came over on his wheeler and she would not stop braying. Completely losing her s#$%, all because he had a coyote on the rack some 2yrs ago. If she can still smell that, and since she was completely enthralled by the stink of my liner, I'ma steal her for a bit today and set her loose, see what she finds. But if she doesn't... it's 65* and 60% humidity, which gives him a chance, but I gotta think he's about ready to cocoon up by now if he hasn't already. If she don't find him and he ain't buried in some dark corner or pile of wet towels, then he's likely a goner.

Kinda sucks, but in a few weeks I'll have ~50,000 tadpoles. Hakuna matata.

Yup. The last 5% is gonna take 50% of the time lol.

Today was tough. I suppose sealing the totes wasn't all that complicated, but getting that liner folded just so was maddening. Add to it the awkward position half squatting / half laying in the moat, and my everything hurts. Cutting, lining, trimming, adjusting, prepping, laying, trimming, adjusting... took just under 6hrs for just the two totes. And doing it from the moat looking over into the tote essentially upside down was probably not the best way to go about things. But after all the faff, I was left with just one area that wasn't quite Good Enough, and liberal application of silicone took care of that. Slopped and sealed, I left to get my boy.

Wasn't really much to do after that than either test it or fill and hope. I threw the hose into one of the totes and left to continue elsewhere, and one tote overflowed into the other without much issue. The bend is more extreme than I'd like and creates a bit of a pinch in the line, but it flew sort of OK with just atmospheric pressure and squirted pretty good when I pointed the hose into it. Since it flowed that good with my weak pressure and no seal, I think the pump will be just fine. And hey, the totes weren't leaking =)

I continued to watch it but wasn't sure if it mattered. With all the variables I couldn't really judge what flowed into the deep end and so couldn't gauge a leak. I eventually turned it off figuring that would show a leak, as water should just stay at the level it's at. I was quite concerned upon returning several minutes later to see a clear wet line marking was used to be the high water mark, but I noticed the puddles in the main liner had the same size wet border. Knowing that part wasn't leaking and seeing it match my newly sealed area made me figure it's good to go. With all seals apparently 5-by, there was nothing left to do but prepare for filling.

The whole thing was mostly a wreck. Everything was tore up, dirt and rocks everywhere, and working in loose dirt in the rain means I tracked half the garden onto the liner. Job one - the final cleaning. I hosed, swept and scrubbed from top to bottom, knocking all the stuff on the rocks and the very edge off or in. My rivers are already working, the rocks trapping tons of the heavier silt that comes with rain and clouds my water. A good hour of washing and rinsing and I drained 'er for the last time, scooping every drop of silty water out of it. Cleared out and with different sets of shoes on standby, I put the pipe back in the filter and let er flow.

The last 4 hours was a bit of everything. Wheelbarrowing out the trash, piling rocks, washing rocks, sorting rocks, laying rocks. Putting away tools and materials. By the end, I got nearly the entire cluster of what used to be my garden and porch cleared and cleaned. Old tomato planters, dead vines, odd rocks, rotten leaves, root balls, trimmed cattail, all the garbage that made it look like garbage was all gone. My cattails, which the dogs ate mercilessly all spring long, survived and survived well. After trimming all the old off, the swamp chunk is awash in little green sprouts everywhere. So resilient it is I was able to actually wash it, rinsing off loose silt and dead veg without the chunk of swamp muck disintegrating. Water actually ran off it clear and I could just flop it around like a side of beef without worry. I tossed that where it needed to be and though it drained for the rest of the eve, it left no dirt trail and added no silt. Crazy.

So I guess this is almost it. I put just enough water in to test the rivers and settle the deep end, hoping to acquire a good chunk of free fill tomorrow as it's supposed to rain all day. The cats are where they need to be and I did keep one hyacinth alive all winter long that has spread and bloomed into at least 7 or 8 other plants. I reckon it'll still be awhile as they're tropical and will almost surely die if set out now, but I can at least test plant by plant until they take, ensuring I have them at the absolute earliest possible time. Most of the main liner is rocked; I need only make it pretty and rock the rest of the rivers and that part is done. Now it gets fun as I can decorate, get my trees in, get my air rocks in, get my lights in, and I can finally do it all with a plan and while it's dry. I guess the last "big" part will be running wire to the porch so I can install an outdoor socket and get rid of the extension cords everywhere. And, of course, getting to the water and bringing home all sorts of fun stuff =)

Thank Christ this is almost over. Please no leaks!

Looks great Face. I'm curious where the spillover would go if there is too much rain. Would it wash over the driveway side, or the lawn side?