Can U diggit?

that does look like hard work... look forward to seeing your duck pond next spring....

Good luck with all the hard work...and that is one big pussy!

Job in progress , Lorilyn .
It will be worth it when it is done .

Your landscape makes you look so tiny. Good luck with the digging.

Thanks Jane...hope it will look like a success and not just a big muddy hole in the ground. ;-)
Waddy: our Rufus is all grown up. I can't call him "wee one" anymore.
Driad: ..."when it's done".. now that I think of it that seems so far away! :-0
Drc727: ...never thought much about scale of the operation but I'm famous for taking big bites and chewing for a very long time! lol....Thanks for the good wishes GoY friends... been here almost 3 years now and I'm still digging!

Lori ,where do you get your energy from ? you always have a mammoth task to take on , will this connect to your stream somewhere ? good luck with it ,don't forget to give your back and arms plenty of rests !!

I've adopted a new pace since moving here, Amy. At first I thought I should have it all done in one season! Can you imagine such stupidity? I've wanted the pond since we came here and early this spring I managed to figure out the lowest point to dig. The water level is about 3 ft down at that point and the area is a bulldozed tip. You wouldn't believe how much garbage I've unearthed.
If you look to the far left in the picture there is a ditch which I started last spring and it connects to the stream about 15 ft away...that will receive water in the spring and the water will collect because I've gone down more than 3 ft. The small stream that runs across our property is dried up at present, but the stream that connects to our stream is low but still there. I'm hoping that the two will feed my pond, but it may become stagnant by autumn...will have to wait and see. (that's next years problem) I found seed for a wild arum and I'm going to put it in the middle..along with some roots from the wild white nymphaea from the pond up the road. Actually had a heron drop in for a visit last week.

another one of those niggly little jobs than?? good job you have such a big spade...can you actually work with that or is it an optical illusion and you are standing further away than it looks? i feel positively guilty with my little plot now looking at what you are taking on here, but good for you, follow your dreams and the yellow brick gardenpath! Will you have a sluice gate at the end to hold water in during dry spells, and would there be a chance that in the other extreme, it might burst its banks? i distinctly remember seeing pics of your Little Stream in full spade taking everything down with it.
lovely pic of you and rufus, dont forget to stretch like him when you are digging. i did my first gardening session this afternoon, goy is inspiring me again, even the thought of yet another doorframe that needed sanding couldnt keep me indoors .
Waterlilies, herons ...now dont make me drool :-(

LOL...resi you spotted my secret weapon. I spent major bucks on that spade! It has a graphite/fibreglass reinforced handle and it is very strong for levering stones and I've sharpened it's blade so that I can slice thro sod. We had rain most of last night and the stream is running again...so I must take a picture for an update. No sluice gate yet. I've used large stones as a barrier and the upstream connection controls the highwater in the spring...at least it will for the next season, I hope. More work to be done. little bites!
Up to this point it was just a muddy hole but now with more water in it and more work done around it..it's beginning to look better.
so glad that you are inspired to go outdoors. How is your sun sensitivity now that you are at higher latitudes?

Really look forward to seeing your new pond Lori and the wildlife that will be attracted to it. One of those mini diggers would make short work of it! Or is that sacrilege? You could skate too in the winter as well, if it is big enough.

You are an inspiration Lori......you must have some mean biceps by now! It's going to be wonderful when it's finished, and you'll be so pleased and proud of your achievement! Whenever I feel the need to get it all done in the first season, I'll look at this and 'get real'! Gone to faves!

Have been ok but just my luck, I was looking forward to some more 'pearly skies' and ..dare I say it, rain! but this country seems to have had the warmest, dryest summer in living memory, so still had to be careful but I had a few things to do indoors so that worked out well. Now that the UV is low I am in the garden much more. I am lucky the previous owner was a gardener but had health problems the last few years so she planted masses of evergreen bushes,which will come out soonest, but also lots of lovely plants and bulbs. Soil is easily workable which is still a source of wonder to me after my concrete garden, and every time I stop and look up, the most glorious views. As soon as I locate the electr cord for my hedgecutter that hedge will get a hefty cut, so I really don't feel hemmed in. btw I posted a pic of my back garden this am.

Dorjac: hadn't thought about skating...great idea! hope the watertable doesn't drop as it sometimes does in winter. I asked a local farmer to take a few scoops out with a digger and he put me off saying that we should wait until August or Sept. when the streams usually dried up because he didn't want to get mired in the stream! That's when I bought my super-duper spade and went into training! lol...
Karen: I'm looking like Popeye! (if only spinach worked for me!) I'm glad that my experience is of help to you. Are you able to get into the new property to dig beds for your transfers? That was my worst nightmare...all these plants which needed to be in the ground and I didn't know where to dig... don't worry too much..it will all be sorted. Will you have your greenhouse this winter?
resi: just took a look at your pic...wow! beautiful view and tillable soil...maybe you could take a year off...just see what comes up next spring and go from there? That would reduce the stress of this year when you have other things to deal with. what is the hedge? is it deciduous or coniferous? maybe give it a year's grace too? I'm suggesting this because I realized that the first summer was going to be written off. I had to learn the soil, the wet spots, the dry spots, the shady parts and the sunny ones... the frost pockets...etc. .etc... The second season I finally had things where I thought best and had done enough digging that there was a place for everything. This past summer, even though it's been cold and wet, the garden has given me some payback. It finally looks something like a garden..and next year it will be better still. Learning the patience to wait was very hard for me and I see it now, but I sure didn't then!