YOU CAN BUILD A CONCRETE POND IN YOUR BACK YARD (AND HAVE AGREAT TIME DOING IT)!

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WALL REINFORCEMENTS

To strengthen our pond's walls (and give the wet concrete something to "grab onto"), we lined the entire excavated area with 4-mil plastic, then laid down light gauge woven wire fencing (which we bought cheap as "seconds") in 6'-wide rows that overlapped each other by six inches. (At the overlap, we bound the segments of fencing together with tie wires spaced eight inches apart.)

Next, we circled the perimeter of the water hole with 3/8" cable and laid a 2' X 2' grid of the cable across the excavated area (see drawings). Then we tied the cable to the underlying sections of fencing. (This tying job—and the one before—occupied two people more or less full time for four days.) Reinforcing rods (rebar) could have been substituted for the cable, but it would've been a harder material to work with because of its stiffness.

Finally, a layer of 2" chicken mesh was rolled out over the pond's steep, sloping sides (overlapping the fencing and cable already laid down) as further concrete reinforcement. (This job is best done—we found—with the aid of a couple of friends, since maneuvering heavy rolls of fencing along the pond's steeply inclined sides calls for a lot of muscle.)

PARTY TIME

At last, we were ready for the really fun part of our project . . . the day-long "concrete party". To prepare for the festive get-together, electric concrete mixers were brought in . . . waterlines were set up . . . electric extension cords (to power the mixers) were laid ... river rocks were hauled to the site . . . 10 yards of sand and gravel—and 50 sacks of cement—were delivered ... and arrangements were made for 10 very dry yards of transit mix (Redi-Mix) to be trucked in. Last-but not least—a number of our good friends were invited over.

By 7:00 a.m. on the appointed day, my man and I were thoroughly keyed up for some long hours of hard work and good company. In the silence of the morning, we stood by the strange-looking plasticand-wirelined crater we'd made and said a little prayer. Then—with the arrival of the first four volunteers—we started the first mixer.

We began with a mix consisting of four and a half shovels of gravel and sand to one shovelful of cement (six sacks of cement to the yard), with enough water to give a stiff mix. (And by stiff, I mean concrete dry enough to sit in a heap when placed on a 45° incline.)

The first wheelbarrow load went down the steepest of the pond's four sides. We spread the concrete fairly thickly across the surface of the wire/cable/mash grid, then reached down and pulled the wire up through the first two inches of the mix before slapping the sludge with the backs of our shovels to remove trapped air.

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