Back at it..

Apologies for the sparse updates, there have been many things going on personally that I have been neglecting many of my pursuits. That is not to say that I haven't been working on this particular project, more that I haven't made the free time to document it. I have had some sad times with a family member passing, I have had some busy times, and then some relaxation and lazy times. All in all life is pretty damn good but that is another topic..

TL;DR; Procrastination is a helluva drug..

So, back to documentation.. since we left off with why we are here and what the problem was that we faced: crappy soil, too much money and time wasted annually, Aquaponics!!! 

To resolve this situation we looked into Aquaponics and I watched many many You Tube videos and read many many blogs.. too many to count or even track I will give some shouts to Bigelow Brook and AquaVerde as inspiration to get out there and give it a go, learning as you go, and plan with common sense in mind.

As previously mentioned we started with soil/raised beds and given the yard has no trees for shade, we put up the framing to make a covered garden area 20' x 24' on the south side of our home.

I had a base area and framing to work with so I started doing the research on the most versatile way of growing and the prominent method that provides good results for a large variety and as it turns out that is a flood and drain media system.

So the plan was to originally make long rows with an individual 4' cube IBC tote at each end. The goal being to balance 1:1 bed cubic feet with fish tank cubic feet.. and given that 275 gallons in a tote was 5 - 55 gallon barrels cut in half to make 10 - ~27.5 gallon.. It seemed like the perfect match and proportional formula.

After looking around on Craigslist I got discouraged at the pricing on the totes. Everyone wanted a $100+ for them and I had to drive almost 2 hours with a truck to get them.. not ideal. At this point I focused my efforts on locating the bed space barrels and and upon seeing the barrels the first comment my wife made was "can they be painted?" so I immediately knew that further designs had to consider aesthetics.

I purchased and re-purposed a bunch of 55 gallon food grade barrels.

 Vinegar and Soy.. boy did it stink when I was cutting these open.. my wife didn't know I was cutting them and she came out to pick tomatoes, she commented "Smells like someone is cooking something really good".. she loves to use soy in her recipes so I got a chuckle out of it.

I started designing and I looked for inspiration only to find Bigelow Brook and loved the geodesic dome project. I must have gone through every upload in a few days and then started processing what I had learned. The way he built the beds with wood framing made it look warm... a place you want to just take a stroll and take in the life growing around you. That is what I wanted to shoot for.. some place to go hang out, meditate, enjoy the sound of the water, be amidst the growing veggies and fish a calm place in the otherwise hectic nature of our lives.

I decided to frame the beds out of wood so that they can be stained or painted. This would serve a dual purpose of aesthetics and support for the sidewalls of the barrel material. The underside would be covered in a lattice to hide the plumbing and barrels that are not covered by the framing.

I did the measurements and since there is a 20' x 24' area I figured I can split that to 20' x 20' with a 4' section down the middle and that should give a nice covered walk area between the two sides to run plumbing down which would be decked over. The beds would be as long as the barrels are tall which comes to about 3'... which means 2 rows makes 6' and a 4' walkway between rows..it was like it was coming together by itself.. now that center row section I was originally planning on using for the IBC totes but it occurred to me that I have an abundance of youthful cheap labor (read: nephew in college out of work) to dig a pond for me so why not go that route and add a little waterfall for the return?

I checked the pricing on liners and learned about EPDM vs. PVC and the fun of fish ponds. I shopped at Lowes to find they sell a 10' x 15' EPDM liner for $189. This would be cheaper to purchase than 2 totes at ~$200-$250 (+ gas) and would give me an in-ground solution to keep water cool in summer, as well as, the ability to easily cover and insulate in the winter to not need any heaters for the fish.

Then I thought about the sand and washouts, the pond walls caving in with such a small area.. so I thought why not use the material you are removing to fill sandbags to build a wall around the edge of the pond to reinforce the whole deal...

With an idea, some luck, and a new truck.. I went shopping for supplies..