Habitat - Outdoor :: The Bale Vale Tale

[apondfortimmy]

I plan to find a way to use the pond liner, but I miscalculated - a 9x10 pond with a three foot depth can't use a 10x13 pond liner because it ends up being three feet too short. I'm redoing my calculations to see how big I actually need, or to find the correct measurements needed to make it work.

Math so early in the morning is as refreshing as coffee but a lot less sweet.

[cutepanda86]

Math can be like that. lol At least you didn't get all the way through before this happened.

[kerby]

I'm the same way I got big plans but they dwindle to a small effort at the end... Sigh procrastination...

[apondfortimmy]

I mathed so hard I took a nap.

I found a way to make it.
Dimensions are 5' x 7', and the liner would need to be 13'x13'. I found a liner online that's 15'x15', but everywhere I looked, it cost $200.

The water would be a little over 600 gallons. This is about 400 gallons shy of "ideal" (for full grown adult size) if I base that on 10 gallons per shell inch for all my turtles except the babies and Sweetpea.

There would be a 4x3 area that's 3feet deep for them to overwinter in. That's plenty of space if you give all the turtles a square foot of space to be in, especially if I don't put the three Musketurts in.

I'm going to try to dig tomorrow. Today it was installing the sink and math day and not digging day.

[cutepanda86]

Wow that is a lot of water. yay for garden hoses.

[apondfortimmy]

Excel pond volume calculator!

It's not to scale or even to partial scale, but at least the square footage and gallons calculator part works. And it's easily modifiable.

I still have to work on the fence part, and bracing the outer part of the basking area (everywhere that's only a foot deep has the basking area to the outside). I think I'm going to just shore up the outside with dirt and place the basking areas up against the back wall to make it easier and use less fencing.

[cutepanda86]

Yay math! lol

Possibly stupid question but how far above sea level are you?

[apondfortimmy]

Yay math! lol

Possibly stupid question but how far above sea level are you?

Uh oh. About 2000 feet; why?

[cutepanda86]

See it was a stupid question. I have relatives that if you dig down too far, you get water, so I was curious. lol

[apondfortimmy]

WHEW, I thought I was about to make some horrible mistake because of my elevation.

I actually googled "elevation sea level slider turtles" to see if I was missing something.

I haven't been out to dig this weekend because there were thousands of bugs that swarmed after I removed the pool sandstone side bits and after the rock moving. Our neighbors had new rock put in too so that stirred up all the rock bugs even more. I couldn't even walk out there.

The fire code enforcement people came by the other day and told me I had to take care of the front yard (weeds); that put this project on hold temporarily as I have to get that spiffed up so I don't get fined.

Homeownership: neverending battle with everything.

[cutepanda86]

I didn't want to freak you out but I wanted to be sure. Sorry about that.

Yucky rock bugs.

I've never heard of people coming in to tell you to weed. That's odd. Fire code issues?

[apondfortimmy]

I've never heard of people coming in to tell you to weed. That's odd. Fire code issues?

Sigh. Yeah. Fire hazard. I mean, ok, I understand that, and it did get me to plan what to do with my front yard to accommodate NyrtleSweetpea.


(Since I can't afford the pond liner in the back for a couple of weeks, and I have until 4/16 to do this, I should work on this first. I will probably come up with some great ideas for the back pond while I work on this, too. Manual labor is like the shower for great ideas with me - I think it's the heat on my muscles.)


Planter boxes along the outside, fencing right inside that, newly-washed rocks lining the inside of that, and a pre-formed plastic pond with grass around it and a shady bush cave area for the Front Yard Turtle Zone. There's a tree out there too that's nice and full in the summer and the rocks will be a lot prettier with a turtle around.

[cutepanda86]

Too dry out in your neck of the woods. I see.

Heat on the brain muscles. lol I can't wait to see the pics.

[apondfortimmy]

So, aargh.

That is all. I've been working on the front yard too much to do the back yard just yet, although that's probably good because we had a cold bit where we even had to bring Sweetpea back inside for a week because it was just too dang cold.

Anyway, that's it. I'm hopefully meeting with the guy who has the "extra thick heavy duty" pond liner that's 15x17 this weekend to see if it's something I could use.

[cutepanda86]

Well sometimes life makes things difficult. Good that Sweetpea is safe from the cold. How cold did it really get? Does that happen a lot?