KOI POND CONTINUED...SALVAGE & PLANNING

Because I don't yet have the right kind of shovel and am still awaiting my pond supply delivery, I figured the best way to bide my time was to take inventory of what I have to work with here.  To reconstruct this on a budget, I'll need to salvage the bulk of the materials and replace only what's necessary (i.e the liner & pump). And so, this morning, I set out on a little archaeological dig to scavenge for what's there. Buried beneath the leaves and soil I found:

- (16) Fire bricks. (hmmm....Fire bricks???)
- (6) lawn edger type interlocking bricks
-  a big ol' pile of ventilated brick and standard, run-of-the-mill brick
-  another huge pile of slate
-  a pile of broken marble slabs
-  a pile of crumbled concrete

This is going to take some imagination because most of it was not intact, but whoever built this seems to have used the ventilated brick to hold the pond liner in place along the edge, and the fire bricks as a decorative edge on top.  Though why you'd use fire bricks for a pond, I have no idea...unless this was actually a fire pit? You could easily fit a couple of pigs in there to roast...but then why the pond liner?  Mysteries.

Well, whatever it was, I'm still turning it into a pond.  I made a few preliminary sketches on the train ride this morning to help me feel more confident about this decision because right now it looks like a big ol' disaster out back. I think I'll lay a perimeter of brick to hold down the new pond liner -- six bricks on the 4' sides and about nine on the 6' sides.  Once they're level, I'll lay the fire brick over top and use the dirt to make it level with the lawn. Those lawn edgers might look kind of cool on all four corners with maybe two more on either of the long sides. Not really sure what the slate or the marble was used for, so I'll probably just get rid of it. Maybe I can use the slate to build a path or something? Oh the possibilities...

Mad drafting skillz right here.

I'm not sure what I accomplished with this one.  But I sure had fun drawing that waterlily!