Beagle Lake

[Ray Dunakin]

Very nice, especially the rocks along the shore!

[FJ and G]

Sorry, I don't Mark.

[markn]

Looks great Dave, I can't quite picture the plastic drywall mixing bowl you used for the lake-do you have a before picture?

[FJ and G]

Beagle Lake created with $10 and some change

I used a large-size, thick, black plastic drywall mixing container (about $10 and some change) to form Beagle Lake, which will serve several purposes, one of which is to be a reservoir for irrigation canals I will build leading to the garden. Hound Canyon River leads from the water downspout to Beagle Lake to repleni***he water supply when it rains or when I use the hose, as I did in these photos (the rainspout will actually produce several times this flow).

Naturally, the other purpose is to serve as scenery for the trains. I debated about whether to lay the tracks then the scenery, but in this case, I wanted to do the scenery first and then the tracks. I already have a 6 foot long girder bridge I’ve been working on that will span some of the area you see in the photos and another track will lope around Beagle Lake. That’s the next stage.

In creating the vegetation around the lake and river, I wanted a bit of diversity and small and large trees. Also, I chose plants that “scale” well in my mind so the trains have a natural setting. If you look at the first very closeup photo of the greenish plant; that happened to be growing wild on a mound of dirt in my garden. It looks like parsley but I tasted it and it is not. I replanted it along the river and it seems right at home. If anyone knows the name of it, I’d sure like to know. I placed wood chips over the excavated clay mountains to slow erosion. I’m not quite done with the vegetation and will also need a place to walk!

The river is made with concrete blocks, mortared together. There were some leaks during testing so I applied “Rubber Cement” a grayish powder made by Sakrete. I’ll know this evening how well it worked.

The whole project, river, lake, plantings, and moving rocks around, was completed in a day and a half. Actually about a day as I had to walk the hound quite a bit.