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Pond Diary -- Page 4
On Thursday, 8-10, field stone was purchased and I began placing it around the pond.  This process brought several thoughts to mind.

The first was the irony of actually having to buy the stone.  I can remember walking behind a wagon in Clinton Johnson's fields picking up field stones and throwing them onto the wagon, then dumping them at the edge of the field as waste.  NOW I had to pay $20.00 for a 20 gallon bucket of it!

The second was gratitude for Granddaddy Howdy's genes.  You know how he used to want his jigsaw puzzles wrapped so that he could open the box without seeing the picture?  Assembling the walls around the pond was sort of like that, except for two MAJOR differences -- THIS is in 3 dimensions AND with a boxed puzzle you KNOW all of the pieces are there to complete the puzzle.

Finally, I got a much better appreciation for the kind of work that Dave Rugh has done on his "Walled-in Pond", and for stone masons in general -- both for their strength and their skill.
These pictures give you some idea of what I did on the evening of 8-10.  (Thanks to Pop-Pop for taking them!)  I was able to completely hide the hose leading into the bog pond, as well as the lip of the pond liner.  The water is pretty murky because I had to plant the iris and butterfly weed directly in the stones of the bog.  Even though I shut off the pump, I still stirred loose much of the sediment in the bog, and when the pump was turned back on, that flowed out.  I also learned that I should have used smaller stones (pea gravel) in the bog, so may have to replace those in the Spring.  The good news it that the fish don't seem to mind the murky water, and it has cleared significantly in the past 24 hours.  Some new plants have been added.  The large floaters in the right side of the pond are water lettuce and the smaller ones along the front edge are frog bit.  Hopefully, I'll be able to finish the rock work this weekend (provided I'm not too tired from getting up to see the meteor shower!)
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