The Pond is Gone!

Last week we (and I use this term loosely) finally took out our huge pond in our front yard. It was a maintenance nightmare: during the spring it was full of bark from the wind, in the summer it was full of algae from the sun, during the fall it was full of leaves, and over the winter it had footprints on it from the neighbor kids walking across the frozen ice (DANGER!) Basically we (again using the term loosely) were constantly having to clean junk out of it-thankfully no children. On top of that, our fish froze to death this winter-my dad was completely traumatized as he was in love with our two foot long albino catfish named Carl. I thought Carl was creepy with his giant fish mouth. Ever since we've had Tiernan we've been saying that we need to take the pond out for his safety, and now that he's become a little escape artist, it's all the motivation we needed to take the pond out for good!

The process: (1) Shovel out all the existing bark (2) Haul in two dump trucks full of dirt (3) Rent an excavator to (a) move all the rocks to the side of our house (b) dig out dead or unwanted shrubbery (c) push dirt around (it's called GRADING, Tara!) (d) dig out and re-plant wanted scrubbery

It has been so wet and rainy lately that Ethan had to empty the water in the pond three different times. Even still, the excavator got stuck in the mud and thankfully Tyler was here to help Ethan get out!

We are obviously not done yet, but here is the new and improved pond-free front yard:

Tiernan couldn't stand it when the excavator was delivered on Friday afternoon. He stood on a chair looking out the front window of our house and shouted WOW!! over and over.

Here is the emptied pond. It is about 12 feet long and four feet deep.

In the background is the huge pile of dirt.

Grading the mud

The finished product! I am so thankful for my husband!

Do you notice how the barberry bushes (the purple ones) have been moved? We're still waiting to see if they survive.