having a great life in spite of everything

The hole in my backyard is now a pond!

somewhat completed pond

There’s still plenty of work to be done, the edging needs to be finished and lots of landscaping around it, but it’s not just a large, empty hole any more. I started it last year after deciding we needed a great destination point in the yard, something to give you a reason to go out there. I did a lot of online research, sketches, then one day I just started digging. I probably dug out about half of it before I became extremely ill and the whole project became the last thing I needed to worry about for an unfortunately long time. Brian did the rest the digging, but we didn’t get serious about finishing it until this spring.

It was occasionally fun when someone commented on the apparent construction zone in the backyard and respond, “Oh, that’s our hole! Come look at it, isn’t it great?” But man, this is so much better! It’s good to have things back to normal enough to be able to focus on non-essential projects again. Not only that, but I’ve gone from a month in the hospital last spring to hauling several hundred pounds of rock myself this spring. (Suck it, 2009, you were a lousy year!)

I even found that my new iPad (ooo!) can pick up our wireless connection while I’m sitting out by the pond. Which is really cool, but usually when I go out there I just listen to the water. It really works great as a destination point, I go out in the yard a lot more now, and when people come over they gravitate to it.

Now I just need to figure out how to arrange the seating and landscaping around it. Prolly take another year to finish that, but now I’m in no hurry, it’s pretty nice as is.