Busy bees and June Bugs

This is the latest on the Klimt piece, I had to put it away until a
new pond was installed… I can get back to it tomorrow though!

The Pond install….
Day one, excavated the old one after deciding to wait until spring
to enlarge it. It is just too much for the two days we had available.
We also need to collect more rock for the edging.

It looks pretty dry here, the rain started later… and it poured.
Which made for muddy messes and heavy shoes. Because
yes, we barely stopped even when it rained. It had to get done.
It actually felt great except for the mud that resulted from it!

This was at the end of day one. Our goal of having the
fish back home reached. (Lil Bit had a blast with the fish
in her little kiddie pool. Pictures of her on our flickr sites,
More on Jan’s than mine.

This morning I went out to plan… I love this part so much!
We only bought a few bags of leveling sand, two egg rock
and one pea gravel. Including a more powerful pump and a new liner.
Oh and two gorgeous lantana! Seriously cheaper than a rubber liner
and all the rock we will need. What fun I had kneeling in the mud,
laying edging stone, planning where the lantana would go and
which rock would set it off just so. Jan joined me soon after and
we finished in just a few hours. Then I had to move things around a
bit because, well I just do that sort of thing and Jan puts up with it.

Happy now, we are relaxing, because these old bodies are just beat
to hell from it all! I am most pleased that I had help this time,
all of us yesterday to dig and sort available rock supplies. The kids
carried most of it for us and even helped to dig. We were able to fully
embed the liner this time and not use any of the landscaping rocks that
I installed last time. It is the same sized liner, yet looks so much bigger
with it in the ground properly. I was also pleased to NOT have to redo
the waterfall yet as I want to do a grand new one when we do the
bigger pond next year. This one will do for now.

and just have a look at this great image Jan took.
It’s an old water pump, inoperable and used to be a water feature
as well, now I just love it’s weathered look and keep it around for a
pop of color in a flower bed. It too moves around often!

As we work on things like this I find such a lovely connection
with my family. A shared effort in which we are all muddy,
tired and could easily be cranky. Yet Jan told a story about
tying a string to a June Bugs back legs and playing with it for
hours as it flew in circles above her as a child. Hilary thought
that to be the oddest thing. Jan reminded her of her country
upbringing and lack of technology they now take for granted.
I just work and listen as these stories are told.
Just in love with them all.

This afternoon, Jan and I sat back, our sidewalk and porch
washed down and tidy again and admired our work and yard.
Remembering how good we all are when we work at something
we enjoy.

Bacon, oatmeal and toast for dinner, soothing comfort food.
Iron and salty goodness after much sweating!
Jan just brought us a cut up watermelon into the office.
Must run!!

Sorry to have been gone, just too tired to blog.
Hope you are all well.