Posted 3 years ago
dav2no1
(839 items)
Thinking Cool Thoughts..
We are in the midst of a heatwave like no other in the pacific northwest! At 11am it was 86 degrees, at 1pm it was 91 and 1:30 its 93! Supposed to hit 101-103 today. Too hot for us Washington State folks!
Took these pictures yesterday in the cooler 86 degree weather. Pond has been sitting for almost 3 years waiting for repairs. I finally knocked it off my list. I had to rewire the pump after cutting the cord with my weedeater. Drained and cleaned the pond...took 2 wheelbarrows full of leaves and muck out from years of sitting. And rebuilt the back of the waterfall plumbing. And finally reinforced and sealed the entire backside with hydraulic cement. Also cleared the vines and debris that was cluttering up the pond and taking it over. Added some weed screen and pea gravel.
Pond is approximately 500 gallons. It has a cement base. I painted the epoxy paint about 13 years ago..super stinky and messy.. some of the paint is peeling, but the water is holding and no leaks. The bird was appreciative of a chance to take a bath in the top of the waterfall. Next up is the rock/zen garden...needs clearing and weeding.
dav2no1, Beautiful. :-)
You got it done just in time for the little feathered ones to get some respite from the terrible heat wave. <3
Thanks keramikos. It's still creeping up...3pm and 97 degrees.
Dogs were begging to go out and play frisbee. I worked for about 15 minutes cutting down some new bamboo and we had a couple throws of the frisbee..then I was dripping in sweat and dogs were panting like mad. Luckily I have a basement..8 ft concrete with a walk out. It's always 20+ degrees cooler down there.
I love what you have done! I hope lots of little creatures find their way there for a cooling dip and nice drink of water.
A few years ago, my sister and I watched a hawk cooling off in my mom’s bird bath….just sitting in the water, moving a wing every now and then. We were happy to see the hawk enjoying himself on a very hot dry day.
One of my dollhouses has a pond with arched bridge, lantern, pebble path, plants…..almost identical to your real-life one….much easier to maintain though. ;^)
4pm and we are at 99 degrees
Beautiful serene garden, love the cute brown bird peeking out of the rocks. Hope the temps break soon!
dav2no1, Yup, you are lucky to have a basement. The house where I grew up had a basement, and I always would go down there on summer days when the heat got to be too much.
Thanks everyone for the good wishes and comments...its 12:06 - 91 degrees. They are talking 106 today and 115 tomorrow.
I would be getting MY TOES wet in there !!! Beautiful !!
dav2no1, I hope you and your dogs survived the heat dome. In a worst case scenario, you could have slept in the basement.
Nice work! Beautiful pond and fountain, I love the sound of water in a fountain. My pump gave out years ago and I just never replaced it. The first year I moved to Seattle, summer of 1979, there was a heat wave and I think it got to 105, but there was not much humidity, so it felt cooler to someone who had just arrived from the Midwest.
My parents built a nice one bedroom apartment with a full kitchen in their basement and would just move down there from about June-September and leave the two story upstairs empty for the summer. I don't think they even used their air conditioning in the summer, just a fan and dehumidifier. My house has a red brick foundation so the basement gets too wet in the Spring and Summer to live in. I did not pay enough attention to the lesson they were teaching me when I bought my house.
The first couple of years I lived in my house, around 2000, I took advantage of a city program for tree planting and had them plant a red maple and white oak in front of my house on the west side and both are now large enough to shade most of the west side of my house. My northern neighbors have a huge ash on the north east side and there is a huge old mulberry on the south side of my house. Unfortunately, I had to have the 50-60 year old silver maple on the south east side of my house cut down as it was dying and about to fall on me, so my house is no longer completely surrounded by trees. It makes a big difference in the summer and I only need to turn on the air conditioning for about 15 minutes a couple of times a day to keep it cool in my house. Some of my neighbors have no trees and nothing to stop their houses from absorbing the heat and must have really high electricity bills as a result. The live in ovens.
I checked and it only reached 98 in 1979 and 99 in 1981 in Seattle. I lived in Kent, in 1979, so maybe it was hotter there, or the radio was exaggerating the temperature....
kwqd, That's a good point about large shade trees. They can make a huge difference.
Keramikos - I moved back a few years ago to help my elderly mother..she passed last year. So I spent a bunch of money and made a big room downstairs..so I am already set. I have a nice big window looking out back, a workshop and walkout.
It's about 11am and 75 degrees..yesterday it was almost 90 at this time.
Kwqd Thanks for sharing the memories.
And FYI - not sure how hot, but at 1 Point yesterday it showed 106!
News said roads were somewhere around 121 degrees + and some roads had issues from the heat.