500 square meters of Pattaya pond

**rawlins** · 17-03-2009, 04:02 PM

So... I quite fancy one of these pond things.. Just have to start digging and the water will come or what?

Off to buy a spade now.

**Thaicoon** · 17-03-2009, 05:14 PM

Originally Posted by dirtydog

You have some nice rocks in that first picture, are those your flip flops in front of the rocks

Hi Dirty Dog,
I think the poachers have been around and left there flip flops, then noticed it empty.

Those rocks we have tons of these on various plots of land, some are a sort of sandstone the others are all volcanic.

I think reading previous posts, big rocks down pattaya etc are big money.

**dirtydog** · 22-03-2009, 11:04 PM

Well in my quest for easy gardening I have started my rope experiment, got about 90 cms of nice thick rope, about 2cms of it is in the water, the bank is about 45 degrees there, if I get up early enough tomorrow I shall be able to work out how far up the rope the water will wick, probably will try it buried as well to see if that works better.

**dirtydog** · 22-03-2009, 11:22 PM

The banana trees have to come out and be moved over to the pond, then that whole back wall area will be a raised vegetable garden, that pile of sticks etc is the start of one of what will be the compost heaps.

Its about 20 meters long there, the wall on the left is 30 meters long but no idea how to hide that one yet.

Found this jaw bone today on the land, not sure if the locals are holding ceremonial killings on the land in the evenings whilst dancing naked round the bonfires.

**Happyman** · 23-03-2009, 01:42 AM

As rough guide on fish density the pond on this site had 50 Tilapia - 10cm , 70 Pacu - 10-15cm, 10 Snakeheads - 15-20cm , when it was first stocked after digging 2 and a bit years ago.
Tilapia are now in their thousands!! Pacu are up to 3.5 kilo, Snakeheads are about 60cm and keep the Tilapia under control ( and chomp some of the smaller Pacu!! )
Recently introduced half a dozen 4 kg catfish just to liven the fishing up

Phuket Sports & Tennis Club - Beach Volleyball, Tennis etc.

**dirtydog** · 23-03-2009, 06:42 AM

I do like the idea of this small raised pond feeding into it.

**dirtydog** · 27-03-2009, 03:47 PM

Working on the land again today and it was my turn to have the cows, now I don't mind the cows as they eat all the jungle that keeps trying to reclaim my land, as long as they keep away from me and the bonfires etc they can stay, I should mention that laying down dead trees along an area you want to protect from them doesn't work, luckily the seeds havent started yet but it looks like tomorrow I have to start on some sort of fence to protect that area

So there I was washing my hands in the pond, one of the beasts decided he wanted a drink of water, so down he comes and starts drinking about 5 meters from me, thats about as close as I let them get, bent down to give my arms a final rinse, stood up and the son of a bitch pushed past me, I am standing on a 45 degree slope and the bstard thing obviously tried to push me into the poxy pond, I may set up some traps for them tomorrow.

^One of the big beasty ones that must nearly be ready for the bbq.

Should mention that not all the bits of q con blocks sink, so I was fishing them out of the pond today

**Nawty** · 27-03-2009, 06:35 PM

walking skeletons...

**Happyman** · 27-03-2009, 08:14 PM

Originally Posted by dirtydog

I do like the idea of this small raised pond feeding into it.

Under the sala is a pump room drawing water from the main pond through a centrifugal filter - the gravel to the right is a waterbed of gravel with water/marsh plants in it to do a bit more filtering.
The small pond is for Koi carp (NO FISHING !!) and this drains over a waterfall back into the main pond .
I only dug the 'ole and did the buildings and tennis court - the landscaping was done by the chap who built the BBQ ( see the recent BBQ thread) and he also built the filters along with a Koi carp/filter nutter ! ( also a TD member ! )

**Nawty** · 28-03-2009, 03:17 PM

Its greener than the grass ??

**dirtydog** · 28-03-2009, 04:29 PM

I thought all animals were scared of fire, seems Thai cows are too dumb for that though, so today in my enthusiasm to clear the land quickly I'm am down to doing lots of small fires, no more big piles of plastic to burn and that now, just old bits of tree and stuff, decided it was time to do the banks of the pond as well, so I started one by the big clump of bamboo, loads of dry grass and that and it went up good, then a cow went into the fire, obviously she is too big to turn round so she panicked a bit and fell in the pond, luckily she got out by herself, then I noticed another cow walking through one of my other fires, she didn't even notice for a few seconds, can only assume these cows are destined for the bbq.

**Happyman** · 28-03-2009, 05:16 PM

Originally Posted by Nawty

Its greener than the grass ??

The water is never absolutely clear unfortunately but it is indeed exceptionally green when the pic was taken as, due to a power failure the pump had been off for three days

Fish don't seem to mind though !

**Loy Toy** · 28-03-2009, 05:18 PM

[QUOTE="dirtydog"]can only assume these cows are destined for the bbq.

Must of looked like a Monty Python sketch mate especially when the cow in her distress escaped the fire and nearly drowned herself with you panicking on the foreshores.

**dirtydog** · 28-03-2009, 10:47 PM

I wasn't panicking, I just didn't want a dead cow in my pond, and aint noway I was going to help her out of the pond, dumb thing would probably have got me drowned

**Nawty** · 29-03-2009, 07:58 AM

Why not fence it and open a hunting park....charge people to fish and shoot cows.

**dirtydog** · 29-03-2009, 06:39 PM

^It's less than 2 rai, a lot of the time the cows just lay there whilst you walk past, wouldn't very sporting really would it, not even enough room to get a "ute" in there to bother chasing them around before shooting them.

So I got a few more days work before its all looking tidy so I need to think of a plan on what to do next, I think an outside toilet, the concrete bbq area and the bit over the pond should be first, at least then when the house is started there will be a toilet for the staff and a shaded area for storage and pre fab.

I still have a few problem areas round the pond and need to decide where the second smaller higher pond will be, but what would be a smart move would be to pump the water from deep in the main pond, up onto the roof tiles, let it go into a gutter which feeds a waterfall into the small pond which in turn overflows and feeds back into the main pond.

**a. boozer** · 30-03-2009, 08:44 AM

Originally Posted by Nawty

Why not fence it and open a hunting park....charge people to fish and shoot cows.

If D.D. runs out of bovine beasts, can always provide the address of my first wife, can't think of a larger cow!

**Happyman** · 30-03-2009, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by dirtydog

^It's less than 2 rai, a lot of the time the cows just lay there whilst you walk past, wouldn't very sporting really would it, not even enough room to get a "ute" in there to bother chasing them around before shooting them.

So I got a few more days work before its all looking tidy so I need to think of a plan on what to do next, I think an outside toilet, the concrete bbq area and the bit over the pond should be first, at least then when the house is started there will be a toilet for the staff and a shaded area for storage and pre fab.

I still have a few problem areas round the pond and need to decide where the second smaller higher pond will be, but what would be a smart move would be to pump the water from deep in the main pond, up onto the roof tiles, let it go into a gutter which feeds a waterfall into the small pond which in turn overflows and feeds back into the main pond.

Exposing the water to sunlight in a thin film , over the roof tiles ,will lead to a buildup of algae- especially if there is fish shit in the warer !
The centrifugal filter in the pond I showed produces about 30 kg of sloppy sludge in a couple of weeks, which is pumped out and used in a feed to the lawn sprinkler system. It smells for a day or so but the grass is thriving !!

**dirtydog** · 30-03-2009, 07:12 PM

I can clean the roof off once per month, that aint a problem considering the benefits of keeping the house cool, I mean come lunch time roofs are so hot they burn your skin, the pond will need the pump on a couple of hours per day, may aswell pump the water a slight bit higher and use it to my advantage

The poxy cows are eating everything they can, these buggers are even trying to eat the bark off of the trees they are so damn hungry, so I am now going to try and fence off an area that I can start growing plants, yes i know I could go out and spend thousands of baht buying 100's of plants, but I think a few hundred baht on seeds is a better idea, I mean I probably need about 10,000 plants in total, so start with some seeds and use those plants to make more baby plants, thats my idea anyway

This is where the seeds will be planted, far back right is where the water comes into my land, it sort of meanders into the pond on the left, so I have to dig troughs every 30 to 60cms I suppose to keep the whole area damp, but at least this way its just a plant and forget about them type thing, no watering the poxy things every day and the soil is really good there, loads of fish poo in it.

**dirtydog** · 30-03-2009, 07:20 PM

One of the main features of the land is the Australian toilet, this will be staying here but will have walls so normal people can use it, one of the toilets will go though, this will be one long building seperating the land from the wall to the pond, ie the toilet, store room and car port.

From the house side of the land it will just look like one long building, 3 doors some windows and glass blocks, although will probably try to hide most of it with plants.

This is what it looks like now once you have walked through what will be the car port door.

**dirtydog** · 30-03-2009, 07:39 PM

This is quite a nice area of what will be the garden but I have a couple of problem spots, first this is where the water from my land runs off into the next guys pond, obviously in heavy rains this run off which is about 2 meters wide could suddenly collapse a couple of meters into his pond, so I need to strengthen it up and have a way to regulate it a bit.

Nice big shade tree of some sort.

So, yesterday I started chucking in bits of concrete, old marble and granite and any other hardcore I could find, today the pond is about 5cms higher, this is not something I wanted, it does need rubble bedded into the dirt to strengthen it up, and then it needs a concrete weir built of some sort to protect the whole lot from collapsing, have to see how well the rubble gets tramped down by the cows and that.

This part there is no path way and is also another potential weak point, so today was spent bagging up concrete rubble and chucking it in there, the pond there is about 4 meters deep so probably needs about 8 cubic meters of rubble at least in there, as this is right by where the weir will be I may extend the dirt out a few meters into the pond just to help protect that area and make a bit of a feature of it.

**Happyman** · 30-03-2009, 09:23 PM

http://www.manufacturefrance.com/doc...20CUSTOMER.pdf

This could be a not too expensive solution while things are settling down

**dirtydog** · 03-04-2009, 06:30 PM

^Can't view pdfs at the moment.
So I am still bagging up rubble everyday, each bag has to be carried about 40 meters, it does seem to be nearly there, ie filled in, I can see the top of the rubble in the water, no doubt when I put the last bag in the whole lot will collapse another couple of meters.

Yesterday I got the first lot of fruit from the land, it isn't ripe yet but the cows are starving so are now biting down the trees, I saw the banana tree go down so rushed in there to get the only bunch of bananas before they could eat them all, today I was down there again and all they have to eat is mud, now you know why Thai cows aint fat

**dirtydog** · 03-04-2009, 11:53 PM

Now most of us have a hoe or 2, infact I have quite a few, got to admit i never thought of looking after them though, just use and abuse them, I have no idea how many hoe's I have bought over the years but they have all been used for mixing cement, for mixing cement you don't need a sharp hoe.

So a couple of days ago me and my favourite hoe went down to the land to do some hoeing, this is where the plant beds will be so I wanted to make it like a farmers field, little troughs and that, blunt hoe's just don't cut it, think I done about a meter of trench 15cms deep before I realised, so I took my hoe home.

Here's some of my hoe's and friends.

Miss Hoe meet Mr Angle Grinder.

Take some of that you hoe.

Now my hoe's are nice and sharp and hopefully tomorrow i can do the irrigation ditches.

**dirtydog** · 04-05-2009, 10:52 PM

Back to working on the land, today I took a load of evergreen bedding type plants down there, there I was standing by the pond with a bunch of plants in my hand deciding where to plant them when I suddenly noticed something squirming in my hand

Poxy bloody leeches, there were at least 2 of them, don't forget these plants came from my little front garden in Jomtien town, not some bloody jungle in Nakhon Nowhere, absolutely disgusting,

Thread: 500 square meters of Pattaya pond

Thread Tools

Display

Looking after your Hoe

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

Posting Permissions