Backyard Concrete Pond

I had this idea several months ago about building a pond in my backyard. My thought was that it would be easy, just dig a hole in the ground and fill it up with water.

Here's a link to my previous post where i photoshopped a pond to the spot of my yard where i was planning on putting it.

I started digging without really having any plan of how i would build the pond. I knew i needed a hole in the ground and this whiteboard picture, along with the Photoshop drawing above, i figured it would work out ok. I was hoping to make a nice peaceful spot where my lotus plants could grow.

This is where i came up with the idea of using a pool pump to circulate the water. I realized that pool pumps are set below the level of the water and use gravity to feed the water to the pump. So i would have to dig an adjacent hole for the pump.

So i started digging. It was fine at first. Nice soft organic topsoil.

Another day, i dug a little deeper. That's when i started to hit the layer of clay. My entire yard is clay which is super had and doesn't drain well. I realized that when i was trying to build my drain from the roof gutters.

It took several days of digging through the hard clay. At this point i was about 80% done.

I had planned on using a double liner of plastic and Tyvek since i have 2 big rolls but after digging the hole, and a good rainstorm, i realized that the clay in my backyard is about 95% waterproof already.

Every time it rained i would have to get that water out before i could continue to keep working I tried a pump but it didn't work as well as using a 5 gallon bucket and muscle.

http://youtu.be/NFJl8ROl_2w

It was muddy afterwords but it actually helped to form smooth curves. I was able to shape the mud into the pond shape that i wanted. Notice the ledge at the middle curve of the pond. That is were i was planning on putting the rock waterfall. And the hole in the center was were i wanted to put the drain. I tried to make sure that everything sloped in that direction.

I also dug a pit for the pump. The inlet and outlet pipes had to be below the water level so that's why i couldn't just set the pump on the ground. Also the hole would help dampen the sound and hide the pump. Below the upside down pot was a 2 foot hole for drainage. The pipe in the middle is the incoming housing for the water, the pipe on the bottom is for the outgoing electric line.

So it was time to add the concrete, which is how i could line the pond and pump hole. I bought 6 bags of crack resistant concrete with fibers. There wasn't a lot of fiberglass in the bag though, but as long as it doesn't crack, i'll be happy. In order to allow the concrete to be formed to the vertical pond walls i needed to make a thick mix.

Materials:

• concrete - 6 bags
• sand - 3 bags
• fine white sand - 1 bag
• concrete trowel
• wheel barrow
• buckets of water
• shovel
• hand shovel

I used the big shovel to mix the concrete, then shoveled it into the different areas of the pond. Then i used a combination of the hand shovel and trowel to form the sides. When it hardened a little i used my hands to smooth the tool marks. That's when i realized that there were going to be some soft areas and i would need to go back and fix them. But after 2.5 hours and 6 bags of concrete, i was done for the day.

Here's a time lapse video of me forming up the first few walls of the pond. I got a lot better at mixing the concrete and forming the walls as i went along.

http://youtu.be/KGkVdmOqDFw

Right as i finished spreading the concrete it rained again. So it filled up and again i had to use the bucket to drain out the water. That actually became a common theme over the next several weeks.

Once i drained out all the water i went through and checked all the concrete for cracks and weak spots.

This is the outlet pipe where the filter will be. Inside of this PVC tube will be the corrugated plastic drain pipe that will go to the pool pump. At the end will be a plastic filter to keep out the large debris.

Just like in the pump pit, I used an upside-down pot at the top for the drain. Below the pot is a 3' hole that i dug using an ice auger. By the way, the white stuff in all the pictures is a very fine, white sand, i bought. I thought i could sprinkle it over the concrete to give a sandy smooth finish. It didn't turn out exactly as i had hoped.

I did need to mix another 80 pound bag of concrete and fix some soft spots. Areas where i either didn't put enough concrete or areas where the clay was so soft and muddy that the concrete didn't set up properly. I took a big hammer and a heavy rock to kind of smash up any thing areas of concrete to give it something to stick to.

Then when i tried to install the pool pump i realized that the 2 hoses that came with the pump weren't long enough to reach the pond. So i had to use a piece of PVC pipe to bridge the gap. Then i buried the pipes to hide them from view. This was the return pipe from the pump to create the waterfall.


I then filled up the pond with water for it's first real test.


This is the temporary waterfall. I plan on making a better one once i have better rock and some more time. I'd like it to be about 2 feet tall and cascade down into the pond.

Here's a video of the pond, pump, filter and waterfall.

http://youtu.be/uVFRKPPqe9g

Then i noticed that a tiny trickle of water was leaking from the pond into the pump hole. I thought, "oh that's not a big deal, i'll just patch it." Well in order to do that i had to drain the pond, at least to a point below the intake filter.

Here is the intake filter where the water is sucked out of the pond and goes to the pump. The water was leaking somewhere around this point.


Here's the hole for the pool pump again. The white PVC pipe on the left is for the electric cord,
the two clear plastic pipes on the right are for intake and outlet of the pond water. It was leaking somewhere near that bottom pipe. So i first tried spraying in some Great-Stuff Foam. But it was an old can and it quickly clogged up. I checked the next day and found out that the water was still leaking.

Then i tried to use a different type of foam and a piece of Tyvek. Amazingly all of this didn't work either. The water still trickled in from somewhere around that bottom pipe.

This was the foam i used, a whole can of this Dap foam. This stuff is terrible, really soft and gooey. Maybe it's good for sealing up gaps in windows but not good for other projects.

So once again i had to drain all the water out again to fix some more areas in the pond that were cracked. I used another bag of concrete to strengthen the weak areas.

I thought that i had fixed everything so Karrie and i painted everything blue. We used an oil based paint that was designed to work underwater. It was only like $18 for a can. The blue paint really made it look a lot better. It gave it a nice clean look.

Then guess what...it leaked again. So i ripped off the Tyvek and got rid of the white foam.

I thought that it was most likely leaking from the loosely packed dirt between the pond and the pump. When i backfilled this area i basically just threw dirt and didn't pack it down. So i dug out the dirt and saw that it was pretty muddy.

Then i put more Tyvek on one side of the hole and plastic sheeting on the other side. I put clay in the hole and really packed it down with a mini sledge hammer and a big rock.

Guess what happened next...it still leaked. So i got the shovel back out and dug up all the dirt i had just packed. But the clay was completely dry, which meant that it wasn't draining through the dirt anymore. I realized that it was draining through the PVC pipe.

So i used JB Weld to glue the PVC cap and screen together. I had previously used hot glue but that obviously wasn't enough.

Then guess what happened... it still leaked. But then i finally figured out where the leak was coming from. Even though i sprayed foam between the two pipes, water was still getting through. So i pushed and packed the foam with my finger and a nearby stick back into the pipe. And that finally did it, there was no more water leaking from the pond to the pump hole.

Finally with no more leaks i went to Meijer and bought some 20 cent fish.

And i put the lotus and lilly-pad plants in the pond, which was the main reason i built the pond in the first place. All done it looks pretty nice.

To see more about the lotus plants and pictures of me putting them in the pond, i'll post a link here when i get around to it.

New Front Door Lock

Ever since i bought my house about 5 years ago the front door lock has been a problem. The key would stick and not turn the deadbolt. Then last week this happened.

I was actually happy. I thought, "Great, now i get to put in a new lock that wont stick all the time." My only concern was that i wouldn't be able to find a lock that looked like the original. I told Karrie about the broken door and while she was at either K-mart or Meijer, she said that she saw a lock that looked almost the same. And since it only cost $13, she bought it. It was the EZ Set Deadbolt lock.

She also had some extra keys made. The Michigan State key was for me.

I've only fixed small doors and latches for inside bedroom doors, never front doors and never a deadbolt. But it didn't look too complicated and i didn't think it was going to be difficult.

So i unscrewed the back plate of the lock deadbolt and took off the front cover. The first thing that fell out on the ground was a spring and these little metal pieces. You can see from the first picture at the top, these fit into the barrel and when the key is turned they line up to allow the lock to open.

Then i took apart the door lock some more and found the real cause of the problem. I'm no lock expert but i don't think this is right.

This was metal and plastic shavings from all of the grinding keys and teeth that have been used to open the door. Over time it disintegrated the lock until it finally broke. So i removed the entire deadbolt portion of the front door lock and started to fit in the new pieces.

The first problem i had was at the door jam. The plate that attaches the deadbolt to the door was slightly different and didn't fit into the existing slot. So i traced out the new plate and took my time removing the wood with a sharp chisel.

Then for some reason the dead bolt, lock and cover plate were not exactly the same size as the original. Instead of being 3" from the door jam it was only 2.75". So i had to remove even more wood from the door with the chisel. And in order to cover up the existing hole drilled through the door i had to turn the cover plate 90 degrees.

It's not perfect but i don't think anyone will really notice. And i really like the new lock, the key is much easier to turn now.

Hatfields and McCoys - The Real Story

There's a new show on the History channel - Hatfields and McCoys. It stars Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton. I guess it's ok for a drama to be on the History channel because it's about two actual families that were all a fussin' and a feudin'. Although beyond that i'm not sure how historical it is.

I was down in Kentucky and West Virginia several time for work, walking along the roads and back in the "hollers". And back in 2010 i was in the same area on the Kentucky / West Virginia border where the whole Hatfield and McCoy feud took place. I saw the original Hatfield home and lots of other famous sites. I even walked to see where the whole thing started. The trees where the first killings occurred. The story was that the old man Hatfield promised Mrs. McCoy that he wouldn't kill her sons in Kentucky. He kept his word. He took them across the border into West Virginia, lined them up against some trees by a river and then shot them all. Here's some of the pictures from that trip, just to give you an idea of what it's like down there now.

West Virginia - Wild and Wonderful. I think Kentucky's state motto is Unbridled Spirit and theirs usually a horse on the sign.

There were a bunch of graveyards scattered all around. I would see them as we were walking along the roads. There were a bunch with the last name McCoy.

The creepy ones were when people would have their own "family" graveyard on the back of their own property. We would see a house on a hill and way in the back would be 5 tombstones. I guess it's legal down there to bury people in your back yard.

And there were lots of stores and restaurants trying to cash-in on the Hatfield and McCoy popularity.

Here's a typical yard in West Virginia. People are really poor, live out in the middle of nowhere and have tons of dogs, which they don't take car of. They are either in a shack or tied up under the foundation of their house.

i also saw lots of rosters, presumably for cock fighting. This was the nice "farm", they actually have little houses for them. Most places just used 55 gallon drums as the roster pens.

All of the roads were dangerous down there. Steep winding paths around the mountains where the speed limit was 55 and people drove 70. I guess no one needs to use the suspension bridge any more.

But most people we talked to were really nice. Everyone always said "How y'all doin'". So i guess the Hatfield and McCoy story is just like any stereotype people have. Not everyone down in Kentucky and West Virginia smokes, while chewing tobacco, caring a shotgun and telling you to get off their property. Maybe 20% of the people we met were like that, but not everyone.

The Future of Cell Phones

What will be the future of cell phones?
What will the next version of the cell phone look like?

I'm not exactly sure. I think it's a case of innovation having to follow technology. Just because you want to hop in your car in the morning and let it drive itself to work, doesn't mean it's going to happen. Eventually it will, but not until the technology is there. Designers love coming up with all this fancy futuristic ideas of things like cars, but when it comes down to it, they end up just building a regular old Honda Civic.

Anyway back to cell phones. In order to see where we are going, we need to see where we have been. First a short history lesson.

This was basically the first cell phone. It was really big, heavy and expensive. You had to carry around a giant battery and could only talk with people if you were in a big city like New York. These made more sense when they were mounted in luxury cars.

In 1986 the first thing that really LOOKED like a phone was this, the Motorola DinaTAC, which took 10 years to develop and was nicknamed the Brick. I think i remember that the guy who invented it, based it off the tricorder from Star Trek. It was still expensive, costing over $3,000.

I still know it as the Zack Morris phone because of him always using it on Saved by the Bell.

But eventually technology progressed and the phones got smaller and cheaper. Still they were only used for calling. Because why would you want or need to use a phone for anything other then calling someone?

Then they got even smaller and there were new designs like the first flip-phone. You could fold them up and put them in your pocket, after you put down your little antenna of course.

Flip phones really hit their stride with the Motorola Razr. A small, cheap, easy to use phone that everyone had.

It had a camera and front screen and it was relatively cheap. This was when cell phone companies realized that they could make more money in the monthly cell phone bills then by selling the phones. Sort of the same story as computer printers costing $40 and then when you need to buy the ink it cost $25 for a little cartridge.

Then the screens got better, cameras got better and people shifted from calling more to texting more. So for texting, email and the internet they needed a fully keyboard.

There were some other early adopters out there that saw that the phone would eventually become a mini computer. I remember people having the Palm phones, but they never really caught on at that time. It seemed like they were a little early in the whole data phone plan idea.

There was also things like wireless bluetooth technology which could sync your phone to other electronics. It allowed for wireless talking and data transfer.

Then the era of the large, simple glass flat screen phones arrived with the Apple iPhone. No more keyboard to get in the way, this phone could transform itself to whatever you wanted. And since then, this has basically been the model for modern cell phones.

So what is going to happen next? Here's my predictions...

(click to enlarge)

 

I think that the most immediate technology that will come to phones will be the cell phone / credit card. By credit card i mean drivers license, health insurance card, bank card, birth certificate... No more wallets or purses, alright women will probably still have purses for their stuff, but all your important information will be on your phone. It will be a consolidation of your life's documentation.

But with all of this important information on our phones, we will need some way to protect it. And sci-fi movies have shown us the best ways to protect our precious information, retinal scans. You will put your eye up to the camera, a high-tech laser beam will come out and pass over your eyeball. Of course this means that if someone wants to steal your phone, they will then have to cut out your eyeball with a knife too.

The wireless charging docks already exist. There are versions made by Energizer and Duracell. The concept of wireless electricity was invented by Nicola Tesla decades ago.

His idea was to power an entire town with wireless electricity, but i guess he was just too ahead of his time. Today though, we have a special cell phone case and table top pad that when next to each other will charge the phone.

I think that all future phones won't need the special case, the hardware will be built in. And this will really catch on only when Apple says it's cool and you need it. Then eventually you wouldn't need a dock, your entire home would be the dock. Your phone would start charging when you walked through the door.

This would also tie in with my bluetooth control of everything electronic. No only would your phone begin to charge when you enter your home, but you phone would start communicating. Downloading and uploading files to backup hard drives and turn your phone into the TV remote and the light switch. I'll call it SIRI 2.0. The software on the phone will eventually become like a real person. It will understand all of your commands.

Now who wants to be carrying around their phone with them while they are in their own home? Not me. So i see something like you set your phone down and your watch becomes the interface.

 

It's easy to move around with and small enough to forget about. Although i don't see that stylus catching on. I think that the future lies in screen projection or holograms.

I mean doesn't this just look like what your house will become in the future. You won't have a 50" TV, your TV will be however big you want it to be.

There's already lots of versions of this in the world today. You can even build your own table top version that uses a projector and a Nintendo Wii controller as the sensor. But as the technology continues to progress i think we will see a simple, powerful, easy to use version.

They already make cool screens that can bend and fold. This is more of the future of the cell phone interface. How the phone will look and feel.

Maybe it will be similar to the phones we have now, just clear and futuristic looking. This looks more like a work of art and actually not that futuristic. It's overly complicated.

Even something like a ring or bracelet that you wear seems overly complicated.

Google will soon release their Google Goggles, which will be able to merge the computer to what you see.

Instead of just looking at a movie theater, you will see the front of the building and a projection of what's showing, at what time and whether it's sold out or not. You won't even have to ask your phone, it will just do it. And it will remember your favorite types of movies and give you suggestions of what you might enjoy.

A phone in the future will be something that you can't forget. It will be come a part of you. Maybe a chip will be implanted into your arm. It will be all of your information, GPS, phone, computer... now it's starting to sound like one of those Sci-fi movies where the government controls peoples lives.

Either this or we will just TELL the computer what we want, basically like in the Starship Enterprise. "Computer...turn on the lights." "Computer...make me a chicken pot pie." We will forget how to do everything manually and only know how to interact with software.

Until eventually the fate of the universe will rest in the memory banks of two droids and they will communicate with a hologram. I mean it wouldn't have been as dramatic if Princess Leia would have told Obi Wan Kenobi that he is her only hope, via Email. Attached is a PDF of the plans to destroy the Death Star, hopefully R2 got the Adobe update so he can read the file.

Human or "human-like" interaction is the key. The future of phones will eventually be able to simulate actually being in the same room as someone.