Sluice Monkeys

The princible is that someone shovels gravel into the top end of the sluice, where a sump pump hose discharges its water. The first 8 feet or so of the sluice have a roofing tin bottom. The last 3 feet are wire mesh, which allows the water and dirt to dump into a barrel which holds the pump. All in all it workes fairly well. Still, the rainwater that has finished rinsing the gravel in the pool has emerged in the deep end looking like a big cup of coffee with cream.

Pond/Pool Update

We have continued to make some progress on our natural swimming pool. Last week we fininshed the shaping of the hole. Then we covered the entire thing with old carpets. The carpets act as an underlayment and should keep any rocks from poking through the liner.



On Monday we assembled a crew of Drake, my dad, Saphouse Bill, Seamus, Eliza and myself to roll out the liner. The liner weighs 900 lbs, which is why we needed so many people. It did go very smoothly and only took about a half hour to install.




Now we are in the process of building the wooden retaining wall which will keep the gravel and plants out of the swim zone. This wall will be completely submerged, with the top being about 3inches under the water level.




Yesterday we had the pea gravel delivered. This gravel will go on top of the liner in the plant zone. The pump also came yesterday.