Re-ponding, part two

After much hauling of slime water, I finished emptying the pond.  Amazingly there were thin red worms living in the gravel and muck in the water!  Significant parts of the decomposition process, I’m sure.

Then the pond liner was pulled up (Jacob doing most of the pulling), and below it was carpeting that I’d forgotten I’d put down to cushion the pond liner.  The brown carpet was remnants of what had been in the house… memories!  Roots from the pine and the palm trees were grown through the carpet, holding it down.

After removing the carpet, we chopped roots and started digging the shallow end.  It has to be much lower than the lowest part of the pond, and since that is the high end, there is a ways to go.  No guessing what my weekend will be like!  There are pockets of hardpacked decomposed granite and masses of roots to be chopped through.  We capped old PVC pipe that I found so that it wouldn’t conduct the water out of the pond.

Today the birds were looking for the bird bath and dripper, and yet enjoying searching through the disturbed earth for edible treasures.  The egret flew in and stood in the shallow bird bath, dismally looking at the place where the pond had been.

After digging to the right depth, and creating a shape which allows more edge for habitat, the pond will be tested for clay content and then we’ll know how much clay needs to be hauled up from the deposits down below to seal the pond.  From what my shovel and my back tell me, it shouldn’t be much!