Worth the Sweat

Wednesday

Jul112018

There's no real explanation for why I thought the 4th of July would be a good day to dig a big hole, but I did. I woke up and suddenly was beyond annoyed that the big waterfall in our pond hadn't worked in a year. Well, it worked, but it worked by letting water pour out of the pond and into the yard and THAT IS A PROBLEM.

That problem has been there pretty much for all of history. For as long as the pond has been in our back yard, that waterfall has leaked just a little bit. Two years ago a "little bit" turned into "kinda a lot" and we were refilling an inch or two of water every day. Which is dumb. And, thus, I spend weeks tearing the whole thing apart last summer. I very carefully reconstructed the whole thing and then watched as the Really Expensive Pond Tape that I used to shore up the liner by the waterfall disintegrated instantly. As in, the pond was fixed for exactly one hour. Then it went back to leaking worse than ever before.

So I unplugged the pump and walked away and swore I was never going to care about anything ever again.

I lasted all the way to the July 4th of this year - nearly 9 months later. And then I suddenly HAD to fix it. You know what's a solid idea? Digging a giant hole when it's 95 degrees outside. So smart. But I woke up with a plan so I had to make good on it.

My plan, by the way, was to make the pond bigger. I originally wanted to make the bottom bigger because I want to be able to see the fish better, but then I realized I could use that same idea to put the waterfalls in the pond. Anyway, long story short, IT WORKED! I have only put about 1/2 inch of water in the pond in the past week, and it's been HOT. There have also been approximately 389517394 birds bathing in the top of the pond and splashing water out, so that is very definitely a win.

Do you know how nice it is to not refill a pond daily? IT'S SO GREAT.

More important, though, is that I decided to create a little spot for a certain small person. As much as she's a nut, I somehow trust Mila to have a little ledge where she can reach the water.

Want to guess how very happy she is with this development?