Koi Farm, the story page 2
Slowly the whole structure came together, building the high level parts was difficult as this
had to be carried out not from ground level, but from pond bottom. To reach the ridge safely meant buying a very tall 'tower
scaffolding', the tallest manufactured. This had to be towed with my mini digger as the ground was very sticky. With hoops
every 8' this involved an awful lot of ups and downs working on my own! At the end of each pond the tower had to be taken
apart and reassembled in the next, I was getting quite fit by now!
Eventually
all the ridge bars, supports and gutters were fitted, this left the minor side verticals to fit, another couple of concrete
mixer lorries and horizontal rails bolted up and the main structure was complete.
The next process was to cover the whole structure in thermal polythene. This was
a job I could not carry out on my own, so I employed the polytunnel manufacturer to send in their crew. For this there had
to be NO wind, when sheeting roofs of this size as any breeze would lift a sheet and take off like a kite, workers and all!
Fortunately for me, a price for the whole job was arranged. The two crews of guys would arrive on a Monday morning
and wait for the wind to drop, as I am only based a mile from the sea days without breeze are few and far between. They were
able to sheet the sides in light wind, so some progress was being made, but slow progress.
Time was slipping by, I could not work on the ponds, as they were wet and I needed the
roofs on to let them dry out. The guys would turn up, fiddle around helping me do some small jobs, but they could not sheet
the roofs. They tried with the first tunnel, pulling the 70kg sheet of polythene across the roof with a rope. They unfolded
the sheet, started to pin it down only for the wind to pick up, tossing the guys to the floor and the sheet nearly ended up
in the next field. £200 worth of roof ruined, it had to go into the bin!
Eventually after many weeks all the roofs were on, but I had lost a lot of time, but it was nice to be out of the
weather having spent the whole of the winter working out in the weathers.
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It was now 16th May, if you look above the grass had grown on what was bare ground at
the start of the frame building. I had to wait for the ponds to dry a little before I could get in them and start reworking
the sides and bottoms.
During all this construction work I had often wondered
what it would be like to be a Koi Farmer!! Funny.
Onto
the ponds.
Inside the 15 tunnels were 14 ponds 90' x 22', these were to
be fry ponds, only 4ft deep, they would hold 150 tons of water each. Too small really, but as large as they could be
at a cost and be covered for the extra heat.
The photo below is taken from halfway down the tunnels
looking back
The pond bottoms are to be clay, the sides lined. This involved digging a trench along each side of the bottom,
applying a layer of sodium bentonite, folding the bottom of the liner into the trench, then another layer of sodium bentonite
and backfilling the trench.
When this was complete the bottom was re-leveled and then worked with a cultivator mixing in a ton of
sodium bentonite into the bottom of each pond. This was then compacted with a 'Waker plate' and the pond was
ready for filling.
