Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Project Extreme Make over.

Thanks much but watch out I might just take you up on that. Rumor has it that they may be laying us old timers off at the plant and there are aircraft jobs available in SC. Only thing is can I build a pond on it? If anyone is reading this thread I hope they will at least learn one thing.

The pond always comes first, then the house. Just remember that.

That's the truth!!!

Pre-Pond Boss. I bought this place because it had a pond and deer used the property (not big enough to hold them on it). Going on 10 years later the deer have slowed down their movements due to neighbors feeding the deer where they don't have to move as far from their bedding area for food, and found out that this soil isn't the best for having a pond (sandy soil - no clay until you dig down 20+ feet). Even tho the woods will be flooded up to 18" deep in the Spring, by the time Fall rolls around the water table has dropped between 4' and 6'. Good clay on the property or very close by is a very good thing to have and (in my book) a must for building a pond.

First the divorce, then the pond, then the house.

Sounds like a mid-life crisis.

RT - I have got an inside on the aircraft jobs here too, SO - you might just be in luck!!! The pond is already there, with 40 acres around it begging to be turned into a pond!!!

Dave I have got you - The pond, House #1, The Divorce, SO.....House number 2!!

The soga continues..... Now that the new home and kids have settle in it's time to do a little renovation on the bosses place.

A few years ago we made an attempt to control heat load in our living area by constructing a large solar awning in front of the glass front. This was short lived due to a little 100+ mph wind. The attach points on the house "3/8 lag open eye bolts" were no match for the load placed on them at that wind speed. They straighten out still attached in the wood and the result was the awning took out a large amount of windows when it came loose and was flaping in the breeze. The idea for the awning was to be able to open it and maintian a clear unobstructed view of the ski but as it turned out it was to massive and heavy to acheive that. All was not lost with the windows breaking because most of them on the front have failed after just 15 years due to the heat load. We were planning to replace them anyway so the insurance check didn't hurt. We have decided to go another direction....
Solar panels


Damage


New plan








Foundation was poured a few weeks back.


We installed a new stretch of retaining wall on the left side of the dock during last christmas break and dry pond.

Materials on hand let the staining party begin. Everything is going to be western red cedar except we decided to use white pine bead board for the large vaulted porch ceiling to lighten things up a bit.

That's going to look beautiful when it's done! The sun sure beats the heck out of the wood, doesn't it?

Will the new roofs be able to withstand the wind if it pops up again?

I just read through this entire thread and I am VERY impressed! Great work! The new awning will look awesome!

The images aren't appearing in the thread for me. I have to click each one which redirects me to Photobucket.

Rocky, you are one talented guy. How is the car?

It sure does here it is in it's glory days. As for the wind and roof only the man up stairs knows but believe me I'm taking all steps to prevent it.

The cars been great accept I did blow a trans but hey thats hot rodding.

Here is a shot of it on the high banks @ Texas motor speed way that ole truck was spanking my B...


I competed in the ultimate street car challenge held at the Hot rod pour tour last year. The car and I got our first TV day view on the speed channel. Don't blink or you will miss it LOL. It is a lot of fun my mid live passifier I guess you could say...

That's cool! There's not enough time for all the things that I like to do. My Camaro was in Car Craft Magazine back in the '80's from being at the CC Nats in St. Louis.

The car has taken a back seat to everything else for the past 20 years.......

Back when cars had real trunks.....cool!

You know, it's kinda nice to pay for a set of tires and know that you will get more than a couple of days out of them.

Good ta hear from ya, Rocky. Like so many things go as we get older, the more they change....the more they stay the same. You are a perfect example with your designing and engineering. It doesn't seem to let up. I think you throw the H Rod in there to remind your body to keep up with your brain.

Love the new plans!

Thanks Brett. I see your project has come along away almost done!!!! I really admire that you can still do it all your self I just don't have it in me anymore to do a complete start to finish construction job of that magnitude like you have accomplished. Congrats on an awesome display of raw talent. The detail you put in is just mind blowing.

Guess I have been designing stealth airplanes to long the guys at work say its wearing off on my house designs after I showed them the latest plans.

Construction has begun

Water looks awfully low. How is the other pond doing?

We are down 4 or 5 feet, the front pond is down about 3 ft. It suffers from me stealing water from it to keep the lower one full. They sealed the upper pond dam pretty good when we renovated it for the new house up front. Now my pond at the back suffers from the loss of seepage from the upper pond. It doesn't help that we have been in a drought conditon for several years now. We only caught enough runoff this year to fill the upper pond to full pool. I drained 18 inches off which equates to about 5 ft in the lower pond. Thats all the water it has recieved this year and now it is beginning to drop fast again.

Yep, I know about rain shortage. My fish are history.

If my lower pond was not a water table pond I would have lost all my fish as well I believe. This was the first time in the 18 year history of our pond that we went into winter with only about 18 inches of water at most. Just glad we didn't get a real hard freeze this year.

I went to my place yesterday and tossed in some food. A couple of fish did come to it which I expected. Unless a pond goes dry, a few small fish usually survive. Mine is really muddy due to steep exposed banks.

Dave, you get any rain from the storms last night?