OMG! That was a lot of digging. This is pretty much where things were left off last night after an enormous amount of digging. I had to go out again today and do it all again because it still wasn’t low enough or level.

OMG!!!

I must have put the tub in at least four times and dragged it back out to dig some more here or there. It’s not an easy thing to do. By the time it sat what looked like level and was down deep enough to be where I imagined it should be, I did not care if the outlet was where it was supposed to be — I would dig that out better another day.

Pretty close but a few more edges needed scraping

A little bit of water to check the level

filling in some around the edges

Two feet down is a lot deeper than it seems. That’s a lot of dirt to excavate. I fantasized about a tractor with a backhoe as I dug and dug and dug and dug some more.

It’s good exercise to say the least.

I put a tarp over it while I tried to shovel dirt to fill in the gaps around it to make it more stable. Then the water filling began. I so wanted to jump in and sit for awhile.

There are still some issues to iron out. I didn’t fill it up around the edges all the way with dirt yet. Not sure how it will be finished off around the outside. For today, mainly I just wanted to get the mounds around it secured enough to not blow in.

Buster was eyeballing me as I did my best to fashion things so that she can’t get stuck or hurt if she tries to get in — which she is likely to do. I hope she does. I’m hoping the plastic lattice will serve to let her in and help her out. It floats some on the water until a little weight pushes it down. Once she gets in, she can likely crawl out on it if she wants to.

The high mound was covered with fabric until I can get it dug away. Tires were used to hold it down. The boards that were atop her existing pond were brought over to clean and consider for placement on one end until I can refashion the cattle panel to make a shade cover. Buster loves to have cover to hide under too. Things around the edges were just to make it a little safer until I fill the edges up to where they really need to be.

Let’s just say that I was fully exhausted by this point and had to quit.

Now to clean this mess up and decide what to do with the hole.

Meanwhile, the kitties were relaxing in the house.

Ms. Lucy

MickeyMouser

After I took that shot of MickeyMouser, I went with a rag to clean his marks off the doorway. You know how kitties rub ever corner with their bodies.

Stay tuned for a hopeful big finale! And, by the way, it was really amazingly level considering how tired I was when I gave up. It just ran out of one edge slightly ahead of the others. I’m satisfied with that. Pretty dang good if you’re asking me.