my very own micro farm

[lindalouly]

Atriums, we are thinking of everyone in northern Cali. Our eastern side is still on fire but not as bad as it was... We have been getting cooler weather and small amounts of rain but it doesn't seem to be hitting the important areas of Washington or heading south. Take care of baby and wife. Love qberts new home and think the pond is working out well!!! Can't wait to see your cage designed for plants.... My imagination shows me small versions of shark cages. Lol floating under bouyes. Haha probably not that big but my imagination is.... Won't even mention the fresh water crab farm I picture!!! Lol can't wait for more pictures.

 

[attimus]

Been a few days since I posted, a lot going on. Woke Monday morning to the chickens making a stink, only to find my dog with the Welsh drake pinned downed and the rest of the ducks literally scattered to the wind. Found the female welsh hiding in a corner and a lone mallard drake wondering around, presumably stayed from a lack flight due to molt. All found ducks where fine aside from large amounts of slober. No blood or noticeable wounds. Guess he just thought they were a toy or something. Anyone else's dog and has would have been shot on the spot. The problem that the rest of the day presented was that as each hour passed it was another that the rest of the ducks weren't back. Well within the first hour two more drakes appeared from opposite property fences and shortly after that I found two of the hens seperated out by a few hundred feet down the drive to my house the furthest almost a quarter mile out. On my return to the driveway I barely caught another flying through the treeline and after some coercing at the property's edge she managed to join her mates. This left 2 missing mallard hens and my breeding pair of Cayuga.
I didn't have much hope for the return of these birds and instead focused on what looks to be becoming one of my biggest projects, the pond. I picked up supplies at the lumberyard about a half hour away and and stopped with the family for lunch to try and unwind from the morning. After returning home my old sage friend just happened to show up, he always has great timing. Well we went about marking holes to start the fence posts. 7 to start from my blueprint and another 5 to go between as they'll fit. At this point they are all currently at depth and ready for posts and concrete however while I was working on them I heard a distant quack and after a bit of search found a mallard at one of the fence lines. Happy to say the least for the return of at least one duck and was hopeful going into that first night that the others were hiding and would come home. Sadly today none of the others have returned and the poor Cayuga don't fly.
In the wake of all this I rehomed Burgler and a roo similar to big red back to the friend that I got her from originally. She will be better off free ranging again and happy to run amuck with just one other chicken and potential boyfriend.
As for my dog he has been banished to the line for some time. This all presents a greater dilemma with keeping him in the house at all around a very uncoordinated just walking 1 year old. Gonna need some time to think on this one.
Always pushing forward.
Onwards and upwards.
Attimus

 

[attimus]

they do make bags you can put your pump in to make sure no fine debris goes into the pump....fine micron bag...works great...you will need to clean the micro bag prolly once a month....meaning taking it out and spraying it backwards....def a must have..for the life of the pump

I had screens set up similar to this before. I'll definitely be looking into the bags. I imagine they are much easier to set up.

Atriums, we are thinking of everyone in northern Cali. Our eastern side is still on fire but not as bad as it was... We have been getting cooler weather and small amounts of rain but it doesn't seem to be hitting the important areas of Washington or heading south. Take care of baby and wife. Love qberts new home and think the pond is working out well!!! Can't wait to see your cage designed for plants.... My imagination shows me small versions of shark cages. Lol floating under bouyes. Haha probably not that big but my imagination is.... Won't even mention the fresh water crab farm I picture!!! Lol can't wait for more pictures.

The closest fire to us is just outside of Yosemite valley. However we are getting smoke from all the fires around us. Since the rain the majority of smoke has subsided which is good for everyone. Still formulating ideas for the planters, but focused on the fence first.

Onward and upward
Attimus

 

[aart]

The bags may be too fine in that environment, they can plug and starve your pump, which will kill the pump.
'Filters' like that would have to be cleaned daily at the least....I've used several pump wrapped filters, they are a PITA.
There's no simple way to effectively filter a pond.

I ended up building a multi vessel(coarse settlement, coarse/fine mechanical, biofilter, then the pump chamber) gravity fed system that worked well.
Have a diagram somewhere.

 

[attimus]

I had a 5gal bucket with holes drilled into it and screen wrapped around it before. Not as efficient as I'd like and the bucket was a bit cumbersome. Definitely not looking for an easy fix to the filtration but for now my primary concern is the new fence around the pond. Picking up some gravel here momentarily for the holes and hopefully I'll have all 7 up and poured before work.
Funniest thing just happened, I've kept my main flock in this morning to help train the new layers to the boxes and let Apollo and Athena out for the day. Well Medusa took immediate notice of him as the pens are right next to eachother and they did a little dance between the fence, when Medusa noticed Athena it was a whole different story. Kicking at the fence from both sides, a lot of huffing and puffing as we ran Athena off. Well Medusa maintained here aggressive posture, wings straight down puffed up chest standing tall and out of nowhere mustard up what anyone would call as close to a crow as a hen could.
Not only once but was calling back in her weird way every time one of the big cocks let one out.
Pretty amusing.
Good morning all.
Onward and upward
Attimus

 

[aart]

Here's a few rough concept illustrations of my gravity flow filter system to twirl around in your brain while you set fence posts.


Filter vessel water levels are at same level as pond, thus the 'gravity' flow, pump pulls water thru all vessels and returns it 'clean' to the pond.
Valves(not shown) placed between vessels, and in vessel drains, gives control for dumping debris collected from pond.
This would work with the 'bottom drain' you installed in your pond.





I have 'retro drains' in my pond instead of bottom drains.




This shows more detail of contents of vessels.
90 deg inlet in first vessel creates vortex that helps heavy detritus to drop out of water column, drain needed in this vessel(not shown here).
Second vessel has graduated sheets of different coarseness of filter material.



There are lots of way to configure the mechanical and bio filtration aspects of these systems,
but the basic theories of a vortex settlement first in line and the pump last in line are essential.
Size of pond, piping, pump and vessels need to be balanced.
More later if you're interested.

 

[attimus]

Finally have a free day to get some work done. The fence posts are a priority for sure, gonna be fun on my own but most of this stuff has been anyways so I'm not to worried about it.
@aart thanks for these detailed "rough" drawings. I could kind of picture it in my head but the diagrams made it way easier and will give me plenty to roll over. Food for thought. I'm sure we'll continue to touch back on this topic.
For now I'm off.
Much to do and much to think.
Onward and upward
Attimus

 

[attimus]

Got all 7 of the marked posts up and concreted. Also started the next set which I also worked out to be 7. Had to pick up a couple of bags of concrete to finish the last few holes yesterday and got another two posts while I was there. If I can get these next wholes dug I'll need another 7 or so bags today. This is going to be one solid fence for sure. And if you find yourselves in a position where you are building your own fence alone here's a few things that will help.

Buy this for less than 10$ hands free level for square and round post.

Make 2 of these for each post. I just cut down scrap 2xs into 1/2 inch strips and eyeballed a good angle for the stakes. Held together by a single screw so it can pivot. A nail might be easier for most but I like my power tools.

Hammer stakes into the ground first then use your level when you attach the longer arms. These posts are sitting on a few inches of gravel I didn't get pictures of but can today.( Maybe I'll edit some more of the process in) make sure and have all posts up and leveled before you start to mix your concrete, made the process of pouring much easier. Dome the concrete out from posts to help with runoff. I finished the concrete off a few inches below the surface so the fence can be attached and run below the dirt.
So much more digging today
Onwards and upwards
Attimus

 

[aart]

Good tools...I've even used that level on tposts, gotta wait for the bubble to settle back out after each hammer blow tho, lol.

 

[attimus]

Well I spent part of last night in the E.R. managed to do what everyone is afraid of when running a table saw and cut myself. Took the tips of my first two fingers off just above the knuckle. I'll spare you all the gory pictures for now though I did take a few last night I haven't been able to even look at them yet. I also have a copy of the xray as well as a cd of images for the specialist ill be seeing monday. Needless to say, they are pretty messed up and I'm gonna be down for a while. This inevitably means less projects and by less I mean zero building which is already driving me crazy, there's always something that needs to be done. Have to admit tho thinking about the table saw running as I type this is making me cringe a little.
The worst of it is behind me and now its on to recovery. Hoping for a speedy one.
Onward and upward
Attimus

*NOTICE *
please always exercise caution when running any type of circular saw.