Water shouldn’t be a problem, but if it is, we have rain barrels on the side of the house. It actually rained yesterday at 1am.
It’s finally happening, but it’s actually happening
- Thread starter The Masked Shadow
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Anything over 80 is grounds to stay inside if you ask me (I am Canadian though)
I think it's safe to say that it did not in fact, actually happen
Just because I’m not posting pictures doesn’t mean I’m not digging 
. It’s around 3feet deep now.
. It’s around 3feet deep now.
Just because I’m not posting pictures doesn’t mean I’m not digging
Three feet deep?
It's been five months, for crying out loud...you could have dug the Marianas Trench, the Great Lakes and the Dead Sea in that time...
It cooled down in the last week. What can I say. I can’t dig on weekdays (school and homework), so I have time Sunday, but also all the other tendings too. Water changes, watering, etc. I dig, and make dinner. (Saturday is rest day)Three feet deep?
It's been five months, for crying out loud...you could have dug the Marianas Trench, the Great Lakes and the Dead Sea in that time...
Just because I’m not posting pictures doesn’t mean I’m not digging
Well done young man!
Let me take this opportunity to dish out some words of wisdom regarding digging holes. When you are in said hole happily shovelling muck out, please ensure you have an exit strategy, a ladder or something would do the trick.
Failure to do this could well mean that once you get to a certain depth, you can't get out!!! I can honestly say the thought of you aimlessly clambering up the slippy sides of your hole, only to keep sliding back down, fills me with utter dread, lol.
Oh, and if somebody claims to be doing something, and doesn't post any pictures of their efforts, then we usually see this emoji, just saying...
Absolutely! GenZ is part of that cadre of humanity which has grown up in the Age Of The Participation Trophy...i.e. all you need do is show up, and that automatically qualifies you for accolades. The fact that he has apparently chosen to do the digging using a teaspoon merely adds to the aura of accomplishment!
Lol, oh yes, the image of the Shadow flopping around like a large mud-encrusted sandal-wearing lungfish in the bottom of his self-created prison, lunging at those daunting three-foot walls only to slide back into the abyss, fills me with...well, something...not sure it's dread...I mean, I am trembling, but I think it's with mirth...
Oh, and if somebody claims to be doing something, and doesn't post any pictures of their efforts, then we usually see this emoji, just saying...
That's what I said!
Okay, this thread has increased my enjoyment of my morning coffee immensely; thank you for that! So I will try to be serious for a moment now.
I'm not sure if Esox was kidding, but the safety thing is real. If this were a jobsite, at least in my locality, you would now be required to shore up the walls of that excavation to prevent a cave-in while you are in there, however unlikely that may be. But there is another concern, one that bit me on the butt in a big way when I dug out my own pond a few years ago. I had created a nice excavation around 10 x 12 feet in size, and roughly 3 feet deep throughout. I laid the liner in place, filled with water, and called it good. This was all done in the autumn, during the driest portion of the year, because I didn't want water pooling up in the excavation while I worked. It was also completely dug in two days, but that's neither here nor there...
The next spring...i.e. the wettest part of the year...the nearly-vertical sides of the excavation started to sag and collapse due to rainwater and snowmelt which softened the soil considerably. I had dug the pond at the lowest point of the yard...seemed reasonable at the time...but it was also the wettest part and water accumulated under the liner to the extent that the center of the bottom portion of the liner actually poked up at the surface. Long story short, I had to pump the water out from between the liner and the actual walls of the depression, then pump the water out of the pond itself, then fold the liner back and remove much, much more earth all the way around to create gently sloped sides rather than the abrupt vertical walls I had originally created. Thank goodness that my liner was sufficiently large to allow for this; it had originally overlapped the edges of the pond by almost two feet, but once I finished digging out and sloping the sides, I had a pond with much more surface area but only about 6-8 inches of liner left all the way around. I even laid large flat stones against the sloping walls underwater to weigh the liner down to prevent future lifting by groundwater. This worked, and the thing has remained stable for a number of years since, but each spring I can still see the liner bulging upwards between those flat stones. That additional excavation took a couple of days, plus another moving and laying stones, making the construction time for the completed pond a total of five days, but...again, neither here nor there, just sayin'...
This actually works out much better in terms of planting for me, since some of the nicest plants for a pond, IMHO, are the shallow-water emergents and I had originally not left enough shallow shelves to allow for those. The sloping sides mean I have lots more areas of shallow water for such plantings. One corner of my pond is now a thriving stand of cattails, and I have pickerelweed, native arrowheads, some small variety of native sedge that looks like miniature cattail, and others which come back each spring without any attention from me. I also usually buy a Papyrus or two each summer for variety. My pond goes for the natural look, maybe not the direction you want to go, but plantings will probably be something you want.
In any case, be aware of and give some thought to the possible instability of walls that are not sloped enough to remain in place when they get wet. If your pond collapses...possibly taking your fence along with it...I think there's a good chance your father may utilize that convenient depression to bury your body after he gets done with you.
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Somehow I don't think you're going to get much mileage out of pushing him in the H&S direction. We already know he has a lackadaisical attitude towards H&S after nearly chopping his feet off with a shovel because he wasn't wearing appropriate footwear.
I don't think spending the night down his hole because he can't climb out is going to bother him, lol.
One part of the pond is higher than the other so I can step out without messing with the sides.
