Terry Ignasiak?s pet project

Back in the 1970s, pet rocks became a craze in this country. People purchased them in specially designed packages with hay at the bottom. Folks even treated them like real life pets by talking to them or putting headphones on, so ?it? could listen to classical music. Fast forward to the year 2008 to a man, who is not obsessed with pet rocks, but a huge rock project.

Terry Ignasiak, a self-taught carpenter, who built homes for several years and is the owner of the Dairy Queen downtown, made an elaborate waterfall on property he owns along M-211, 900 feet north of the Onaway City limits.

In what started a couple of years ago, somebody told Ignasiak he couldn?t pull it off. He pulled it off all right ? and it?s working extremely well.

The water will be pumped to the top of the 12-foot mountain of rock, topped with thick peices of limestone stacked on top of each other, which Tim and Norrie Horrocks helped him collect.

The water then trickles down the limestone into a rock-lined riverbed to an old bathtub, which had been sitting in a barn for several years. The water will then drain into a 1,000-gallon tank buried out of sight, where it will recycle back to the top again.

AT THE end of the day, a computer system set up inside a building Ignasiak calls ?The Holidome? will switch over to an irrigation system with seven different steps to spray the water used on the waterfall all day o

n the grass. The next day, he?ll start all over again with a fresh water from his well.

If the electric bill doesn?t get too high, he?ll run the waterfall every day when it is completed in a few months. He still has about 30 days of work to put in, at two to three hours a night.

The two years of collecting some of the massive boulders at the base lasted longer than the pet rock craze of 1975.

He had the falls going for a while late last year, but final touch-up work continues around the base. By the summer, it should be going full throttle, unless somebody dares him to make it bigger.

Actually, it is going to get a few feet taller. Three feet to be exact, as a ?Blessed Virgin Mary? statue will be on the very top. That?s not to answer any bets, just a request of his mother Marion Ignasiak.