Building a Waterfall

     We've lived in our present house for almost 25 years. It's fun to look back at pictures and see the changes that have taken place in our garden. In this post I am going to share the evolution of our waterfall/pond. We started out with a concrete fountain that we bought at a local nursery in 1994.

     This worked well for several years. Our dog at the time enjoyed climbing into it with his ball or just to get a drink and splash around.

     Our Wyoming winters started to take their toll on the concrete, so we decided to replace the largest bowel with an in-ground pond. So the hubby with the help of our son dug a hole that we lined with pond liner. We used flagstone and other rocks to finish it off. 

     As you can see from the above shot we also expanded the area to make an Asian garden.

     The weather continued to take it's toll on the concrete even though we tried to protect it in the winter. So then we were down to two bowels.

The birds enjoyed our waterfall as much as we enjoyed watching them.

     But we also started to have problems with the ground shifting around the pond area. So we decided we needed to come up with another idea that would hold up better with our crazy weather. My husband was working at the time at a hotel/restaurant. He found that they were throwing out some large aluminum baking pans, so he asked if he could have them. Thus was born a new idea for a waterfall/pond. First we bought a sheep water trough to put in the existing pond and filled in around it, with a little help from the grandson. The rigid sides of the trough keep the dirt from shifting. 

     A friend knew how to weld aluminum so helped us build the waterfall from the baking pans. We cut off one end of the pans and then stacked them in a slight curve and welded them together. At the highest end a metal pipe was used to support it. I spray painted the pans with brown paint to make them blend in more with the rocks that we stacked around. We covered the bottom of the pans with river rock.

     This has held up really well since we built it in 2009. The blue color of the water is a non toxic coloring we bought at Home Depot. By making the water a darker color it helps slow down the growth of algae. 

     As you can see we made a few other changes to the area. It is lovely to sit on the patio and listen to the flow of the waterfall.

This bell was made for us by a friend, from a used oxygen tank.

    We had a turtle for awhile. Our son spotted him trying to cross the street and was afraid he might get run over.  He brought him to our house, he stayed for awhile then moved on.

We put this board and ramp to make it easier for birds to drink from the pond. It came in handy for the turtle. It is also helpful when we have the occasional frog stop by for a visit.

We added some larger frogs to the decor. These were given to me as a retirement gift.

We have also used the pond for an orphaned goose.  See my post A Goose without a Mother

     So as you can see the pond and waterfall has brought us more then just beauty and soothing sound but also the enjoyment of wildlife.  It diffidently has been a wonderful addition to our garden.

A thought to ponder: "Life is like a waterfall, it is always moving and there is                                        always an uneven flow to it."

Participating in: Grand Social, Share the Joy, Nature Notes, Share Your Cup, Our World, Seasons

A Frog's tale

     When I was a kid my aunt and uncle owned a ranch near Hemet, California. It was a bit of a drive, about two hours, from our house. In the summer my parents would go out on a weekend, leave my brother and I and come back for us the next weekend. We loved it. Not only did we have our three cousins to play with, but also the whole ranch to roam. 

Me at the ranch, about 1950

     We never could roam too far as we were on foot. We were always in hearing of the car horn. My aunt would honk it, 3 shorts and a long, to let us know it was time to come back to the house. One summer we discovered some tadpoles in an old cistern. So we got some containers and collected a bunch.

tadpole (stock photo)

     My mother and father were fine with us bringing them home. They felt it would be a good learning experience to watch them develop into frogs.

     We placed them in a large fish bowl in our kitchen and dutifully fed them. We watched as they developed, getting bigger and growing legs. When the front legs started to develop my mother said we needed to find a place to release them. We knew that we couldn't keep them, there were probably 10 -15 or so. Besides wild things are better in the wild. Time got away from us and one morning my brother and I woke to our Mother screaming. We ran into the kitchen. Our Mom was frantically trying to catch little frogs hopping all over the place. We both started helping her scoop up frogs. It took us a bit but we managed to get them back into the fish bowl, covered so they couldn't jump back out. Needless to say that day they went to the pond area my mother had located, and were released to hop to their hearts content.

     The following photos are of a frog that lived in our backyard pond for awhile in 2007.  We've had frogs come and go over the years but this is the only one that let me take it's photo.

A thought to ponder: "The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is                                            important to the quality of life of humans."  Jim Fowler

Participating in: Grand Social, Share the Joy, Seasons,Amaze Me Monday, Our World Tuesday, Around the World, Share Your Cup