In the works; oh the work!

[wayfaringwordhack]

Remember when I said to keep on eye on our pond? This pond, that was so poorly made (and by a professional, we were told):

Here it is this winter, with Sprout for scale, at maximum capacity, and you can see the liner is never fully underwater. There was always a minimum of 12" (30cm) of liner showing. Because the banks were so steep they were a danger to kids and animals and could not be disguised by vegetation, earth, or stones.

Yes, it was big and deep enough for the ducks to have a good dunk, but it was still an eyesore.

So instead of simply clearing out the sedges that were beginning to take over, we decided on a total pond overhaul. As you might have seen in a recent post, J already pulled out the liner; and when we rented an excavator to install a new septic system, we took advantage of it to reshape and extend the pond.

J started leveling things out:

The final digging done:

Well, not really "final" because now I have to go in with a shovel and smooth out the hard angles left by the excavator buckets, or whatever the English term is. We aren't sure what the final water level will be, but we tried to make banks that will allow for a graceful and non-dangerous receding waterline. We do not intend to have fish, only encourage local wildlife to visit us by giving them a haven.

This is the view from our front door. There will be a terrace there to the right where we can eat outdoors:

And this is a view from last summer before we had to tear up the lawn (the trampoline, gifted to us by the previous owners, has been moved, too). You can see the beginnings of where we are putting the terrace. The dirt-and-rock pile was also gifted by the previous owners, who intended it to be a lavender bed but never got around to finishing it.

Now it is a mess:

 

Let us hope that the regrowth with be both rapid and beautiful. I will now go downstairs with a rake, bucket, and shovel, and start collecting stones and smoothing things out. The sooner I get that done, the sooner we can get the ducks in place. And boy am I going to be happy to do that. They are not good animals to move around on pasture. Think of all the water I must lug around... 

Gleying developments to come as they, well, develop...:P

Comments

[asakiyume]

I'm so impressed that you guys just **do** this stuff. That's, of course, what it takes and why I could never live in an old farmhouse or run a homestead. I sure do admire people who can, though, and it's fun to watch.

[wayfaringwordhack]

It is not so easy for me either. I am a procrastinator at heart and like things to be just so and crystal clear before starting. And of course they never are, so we have to just **do** and hope we don't have screw up too bad. :P

[green_knight]

Short of digging under the foundations of your home, it is really difficult to mess this sort of thing up completely, and I bet it will be awesome when you're done.

Great duck picture!