Excavation

• Early last week our excavator began bringing in fill for the berm areas and some of the low spots and started to dig the pond on Thursday last week. We expect to have the entire pond excavated by the end of this week.
• We will be installing a drainage system in the bottom of the pond to pull out any rainwater that fills the pond before it is lined and rocked in and to remove some groundwater that we have leaching into the pond (according to the city engineers there is an underground stream running through the middle of the area where we are putting in our pond!). The drainage system is being supplied by Hancor and will be installed the week of May 26th.
• The grotto that will be the base for one of the waterfalls is schedule to be delivered the week of 5/26. This concrete vault will allow you to walk through the waterfall and is made of two pieces with a weight of almost 50,000 pounds! 

Stone

• The first shipment of the 1300 total tons of boulders arrives tomorrow. Semco Outdoor out of Belton, MO is supplying us all of the granite boulders for inside the pond, weathered limestone ledge for the retaining walls and weathered sandstone boulders for the pond edge, stream and waterfall.
• Due to challenges getting the boulders out of the locations they are in and shipping challenges, we are unable to bring in the 80,000 pound rock for our waterfalls. This rock has been downsized to multiple 50,000 pound boulders. Some of the largest rocks will be set in the coming weeks because they hold the soil back for the large berm. The largest of these rocks will need to be placed with cranes due to the distance that the rock needs to be moved and its’ weight. There will be several extremely large rocks – 20,000 to 50,000 pounds - set while everyone is here for the event. Don’t worry, we’re saving you guys plenty of rock to set the week you are here!
• See the pictures in our photo gallery, to give you an idea of some of the rock we will be using.

Liner

• The underlayment is being installed around May 30th. We will be heating the underlayment and melting them together to make them easier to keep in place on a large project like this.
• We are using 36 mil re-inforced polypropylene liner made by Carlisle in the pond. The entire pond will be lined using 12’ wide rolls and will be heat seamed on site during the week of June 2nd. We were originally going to seam the entire pond before everyone comes for the event but have found an area that we will be keeping un-seamed until the event in July so that you can see how heat seaming (or wedge welding) is performed. DemTech will be here for our event showing interested contractors their wedge welding equipment and demoing their products.

Pumps

• The pumps will produce over 220,000 gph and are semi-custom pumps made for us by Aqua Control out of Peru, IL.
• The waterfalls will be supplied 100,000 gph, with the wetland and jet pumps each producing 60,000 gph.
• The waterfalls and wetland pumps are too large to fit in our snorkel so they are being housed in a concrete vault underneath a vanishing edge skimmer and will be plumbed to 10” pipe. These pumps will be installed and hooked up to the control panel while you are here for the event.

Other items of note:

• To show our contractors another opportunity for their business, TourLinks will be on hand to install a 20’ x 20’ putting green in the landscape.
• We have added another stop on the tours during the week. Midwest Groundcovers is one of the largest groundcover nurseries in the country and services the Midwestern United States. Get a behind the scenes tour of their operation and of their horticultural supply division, Midwest Trading. If you are a retailer or plant person, this tour is one you will not want to miss.
• Other locations on the tour include a retailer fully embracing the complete Aquascape programs and product line, Wasco Nursery and the world famous gardens at Ball Horticultural.
• We are still finalizing the details on the paver patio and landscape lighting. Once that is finalized I will share this information with you.