So this is how this went down. While working in the gardens, suddenly my husband stands up and says " hey honey, what do you think about....." (this is the moment I always get very nervous, and look at him warily, because you never know whats coming when he says that sentence, lol!) "about a RIVER in the yard!" :) :) :) (<--- that's his great big grin, lol. He's always wanted a river in the yard. Me, I want a LAZY river, inner tube and all, but that's not the kind he was thinking of! lol) I stood there staring at him, but honestly had no reason to tell him no. That's actually a parenting philosophy of ours. We really try to not say no to the kids doing something unless we have a real valid reason for it. It's worked out quite well. Soooo, having no valid reason why we couldn't or shouldn't build a river, that's exactly what we did! Here's how we did it.
First we took an old hot tub we had laying around, (it has electrical problems. So while it still holds water, it does not run) and turned it into a water fountain pond. (many thanks to my daughter for the idea!)
Lets get started!
Our ground is very un-level, so we used sand to create a level pad for the actual hot tub...........
Leveling out the pad.
Here comes the hot tub!
Hot tub is in. Checking to make sure everything is level. Level is important! We ended up having to shim a 2x4 under one corner, and we are good to go!
Now to seal all of the outlets with silicone so nothing will leak out. I also ended up painting over them as well so they won't be so obvious. We went with cinder blocks again to hold up the fountain part.
Doing a leak check.
Now for the fountain part, we found this fabulous pot! It is very large and a pretty shape, and best of all its PLASTIC! You can literally carry it with one hand, and it also made drilling holes way easier! There was one problem however......
It had a hole!! But WAIT! Aren't I married to a guy who can fix anything?? That's right! I am! As a bonus, the broken piece was still sitting in the bottom of the pot, easy fix! But the REALLY best part, is that we were able to get the pot for HALF PRICE, because it was broken! SCORE!
This is the stuff we used to glue the piece back on. With lots and lots of layers of this stuff and some tape to hold it while it dried, we fixed it right up!
Tadah! We tested it out, and it held water great!
Then I took some texture spray paint and covered the whole pot. Doesn't it look like real ceramic now? I love it. This side will be the back side anyway, but I think the paint really made it look like a higher quality pot, for only 5 dollars!
a close up of the new color
The front of the pot. I'm so glad the pot was broken! Such an easy fix and totally worth half the price! :) Being a do it yourself-er really pays off! We then drilled small holes around the top to get the water fountain effect.
We made the same filtration in the pot as we did in our pond. You can check it out here to see how we did it.
Tadah!!! We will be adding in plants once the pond plants are in season next month. Love how this turned out! Next we will work on the sides, making it look less like a hot tub ;) I think we will transfer some of our pond fish into here, but I'm also considering putting in a turtle :) decisions decisions!
NOW LETS MAKE A RIVER!!! :)
The area before we began the actual river. Left is hot tub fountain, the mud hole to the right is the beginnings of an endless fountain. The river will run in between. (yes the coop still needs paint ;) Take a good look, as this is the cleanest this area is going to look for a good long while! lol)
We used wire to map out where the river would go, then sprayed it with ground paint. We then dug out some dirt and made sure to grade the river so that it would flow downhill to empty into the endless fountain. We were lucky that this part of the yard already naturally flowed downhill to make things much easier!
I told you it was going to get messy!
ENDLESS FOUNTAIN
Hubby digging out the endless fountain hole. Yea, we are messy when we do any kind of construction ;)
The hole with a shelf for the rock. The buckets will go into the hole to hold more water to cycle through the fountain and river
Next we layered heavy plastic on top.
We placed 5 gallon buckets in the deepest part of the hole, to retain more water for the river, and then filled up the rest of the hole with gravel.
My husband then cut a gap open on two of the buckets so that the filters tubing would fit
Inserting the filter and pump into the buckets
this is why cutting the buckets were nessessary
Lids put back on buckets, cover them up with gravel and river rock, and then placed the big rock for the endless fountain
We wanted to turn this rock into a fountain. Using a water hose, we tested different areas of the rock to see what water flow we liked best and chose the best place to drill the hole.
We used a hammer drill to drill the hole
Tada!! It went beautifully. We then threaded the tubing up under the rock, into the hole, and that was all there is to it! The awesome part of this rock is, the more it gets wet, the more pretty moss will grow on it!
Back to the river!
Then we built up an area for the water fall to collect into a pool before flowing down the river.
shaping the pools
After digging out a little dirt and building up the sides, & covering with plastic, we did a test run to make sure that it was all going downhill.
After the leveling checked out, we began filling the river with rocks, (we used Arizona river rock from a local quarry) and we lined the edges with limestone taken from our backyard.
We really got down and dirty during this project!
Everyone pitched in hauling rocks and working on the dams and falls.
End of day one! looking good! Still left to do: install the waterfall and paver walls, add flagstone for the falls, and finish the endless fountain area.
We then put down weed guard and metal edging to create a path along the river.
Time to set up the main waterfall & brick up the hot tub pond
We wanted all of our elements to be different, so for the beginning of the river we chose to use a simple falls made from sheet metal that a friend made for us
lets take a tour and a look at the other elements in the river!....
And then it ends in the endless fountain.....
Time to get back to work!
The next day, we added Moss Flagstone for a waterfall. The second falls will be a cascade of river rack, and the third falls is a "fallen" log from one of our apricot trees (R.I.P.)
This is the pool that the large waterfall will pour in to, and starts our river. We built a flower bed around the pool.
Testing out the placement of the flagstone falls
Then we poured in one inch Sunrise river rock gravel. I really like how it matches the large river rock in the river.
Coming together nicely! That's a lot of rock! Our bodies are beginning to notice!
We wanted all of our elements to be different, so for the beginning of the river we chose to use a simple falls made from sheet metal that a friend made for us
lets take a tour and a look at the other elements in the river!....
First we start with the hot tub fountain, and the main waterfall that flows in the pools....
that leads us to the moss flagstone falls.......
and then that leads to the river rock rapids at our first bend..
then the water starts to slow and back up until it runs over a fallen apricot log....
And then it ends in the endless fountain.....
Tada! WHEW! That was some work!!! All that's left now is to plant lots of flowers around it, that is if it ever stops freezing at night!
(still have to finish bricking up the hot tub here)
Here's a tour of the whole river.....
Thanks for looking!
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