This past Saturday, The Austin Pond Society members were all invited to a private showing of B.J. Jenkins and her husband, Sam,  who recently completed two ponds they have built directly behind their house. The house is situated backing on to one of the fairways for the local golf course which for Sam is the reason they bought the house. He makes a point of playing every day. I’m not sure if they built the ponds to give B.J. an interest while Sam is away on the golf course or if in fact , it may be a mutual interest… The ponds are very unique in how they are built and are very impressive. They consist of an upper pond, a stream, a lower pond plus two bog areas both of a fairly decent size. What is unique about the layout is that both of the ponds are independent and are not joined in any way although they have a stream that flows between the two. I was very taken with their construction methods and spent some time talking to both B.J. and Sam about it. The stream, although it appears to flow from the upper pond, in fact starts under the small bridge and water is pumped from the lower pond to give the stream effect. Both upper and lower ponds have their own bogs with the upper pond having a very nice two-part waterfall. The pump for this fall and the filtering system is a big 6000 gph and it moves a lot of water. This pond is four and half feet deep, measures  20 x 12, holds about 4000 gallons. B.J. has named it, the Koi pond and it has a few Koi and Goldfish and beautifully clean water. The lower pond, aptly named the Lily Pond, also has a 6000 gph pump to feed the stream and the bog. It is about 23 x 14, three feet deep and holds about 4300 gallons of water. It has a water feature in the form of an old iron hand pump and several lilies that were in full bloom. B.J. claims that she did the design and landscaping and Sam the Engineering and plumbing. They rented a small backhoe which Sam operated and like most grown up kids, got to play with his “Tonker Toys” which is not really classified as work. The project took about 3 months except for the waterfall on the Koi pond which they recently finished. Between them, they moved 5 pallets worth, several tons of rock of the Autumn Blend variety,  along with 4 cubic yards of gravel and the only help they had was from a large muscular guy who hand dug the bog areas. All in all, a truly magnificent achievement and they have built something they can be very proud of. A very nice and pleasant place to sit and dream. B.J. has done a wonderful job of landscaping around the ponds and the rest of her yard. It’s hard to see where her property line ends and the neighbors continues with the open plan and with the fairway behind them and not a fence in sight. The knockout roses are growing in great abundance. When I stop to think about it, I am not a bit surprised that the ponds have turned out so well. In the past couple of years that I have known B.J. through the meetings and the Pond Tour, it is very obvious that she excels at organizing events and making sure they all come together as they should. Plus, actually doing the work herself along with Sam, really makes this a tremendous effort. I compared this effort with my own and the open plan certainly gave emphasis to the ponds which leads me to think that I really need to do something with the jungle that I have created. Next year, after the frosts… Many of the Society Members showed up for the food, drinks and conversation and there was plenty of both with the reasons for the party, the ponds, being in the forefront of most conversations.  The hot ham n’ cheese sandwiches were very tasty and it took all of my will power to stay at just one.  I stayed a couple of hours and on the way home, managed to catch a couple of pictures of a glorious sunset. Unfortunately, by the time a found a place to pull off the road, the best of sunlight had already faded. It’s all in the timing and the moment and I missed both. The slideshow has lots of pond and people pictures. Enjoy…

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