And the work begins........

OK, first thing, hope someone you know has a Bobcat! Then you can dig and move dirt without actually using a shovel! In our case, we didn't dig much, we brought dirt in, cuz we planned to leave the old pond right where it was, so the new pond had to be higher.

See the Bobcat?	We mounded up some dirt...

Notice the water in the new liner. I set it just like you would a bath tub. I got it kinda where it needed to be, and then filled it with water. Then I could fill in under and around it.

Now ya gotta get rock.	Then ya gotta stack rock.

Now a word of advice...I'm one of those who will drive himself crazy to save a buck. Forget it. I tried field rock,and unless you have a field full of those nice, flat, stacking rock, go buy you a pallet of rock! It will save you so much time and aggrevation.

Now we're getting somewhere.	Slowly but surely.

Next, we built a little waterfall for the filter. The filter is a slick little unit. The water goes inside this flower pot, where the actual filter media is. The housing has a pot. kinda like a color bowl, and you can plant flowers in the top of it. To clean the filters, you just lift the bowl out.
It was about $100. More Money!


Here's where I got disgusted. When it came time to connect the two ponds, I spent all day trying to build a waterfall. This part was very tedious, and I'm not known to be the most patient person! At this point, I pitched a fit, commenced to have a (note, several!) cold beers. Jen dove in and came up with one that, unlike mine, actually worked!!

/tr> This is a mostly completed water garden!

All in all, this took a full weekend, and a few afternoons of piddling around to get everything adjusted and the bugs worked out. It is now home to a lot of plants, (which are presently residing in our bath tub, as they don't winter well here in the mountains), four feeder goldfish(10 cents each!)that have grown to be larger than my hand, and a frog who moved in last summer!


Check back soon, as it is spring, and I will post some new pics with everything in full bloom!