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It was either in the Spring or Summer of 2002, Marilyn and I were playing 9 holes of golf with a couple friends, Jerry and Sue, at Wilderness Ridge's executive course. There are ponds and streams throughout the course. Jerry and I had hit onto the green on number 9. We were walking across a little bridge over a stream. I commented to Jerry, "Marilyn could sit and listen to that all day." Jerry replied, "Well why don't you build one in your back yard?" I responded, "Yeah, right. I wonder what kind of fortune that would cost." I think we left it at that.
Within a couple weeks, Marilyn heard on KFOR, an announcement for an upcoming Waterscape Walk -- a self guided tour of local backyard water features. Just for the heck of it we decided to check it out. It cost $10 for a map. At each site (there were 19 that year -- we made it to 11 of them) there was someone to talk to about water gardening. We met a number of pond builders and pond owners, the 2 most memorable being Rocke Huntington (the Pond Dragon) and his son Bryan Huntington (Serenity Waterscapes). We really loved the water feature that Bryan had built and was showcasing that weekend, because we could easily envision something similar in our back yard. Rocke caught my attention when he started talking about the possibility of a 'do it yourself project'. He told us a little about something they called "Build a Pond" -- an opportunity to actually be one of the workers on a pond and stream they would be building for someone. The thought of hands on experience prior to starting something of our own was very appealing. A friend, Kirk, and I both signedup to be a part of a Build a Pond.
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We showed up at the site, bright and early on a Saturday morning and found out thatweweregoing to be working in Bryan's front yard!It was a perfect opportunity for me. It had all the elements we wanted to include in our backyard project -- a pond, a stream, and waterfalls. Plus it was small enough so that we would be able to be finished, for the most part, by the end of the day -- in other words I would be able to see it start to finish and be involved in every aspect of the project. It was also a great opportunity to see if building a pond was something I would be able to tackle as a do it yourself project at home.
By the end of the day, we had basically completed all the elements of the water feature. Although, if I remember correctly, there was some sort of a hitch that kept us from filling it up and firing up the pump, so I had to drive back by a few days later to see it up and running. That Build a Pond project was invaluable to me. I learned so many little tricks of the trade that I was able to apply once we got to going on our own project.
I had told Rocke about the layout of our property, but even still, the first time he walked through the gate into our back yard his jaw dropped and he said, "This is the yard I've been looking for!" From the back of the house, the yard is flat for a little ways, then starts going uphill -- we measured it to be about an 8' vertical difference from the highest corner to the lowest spot where the pond would be.
Marilyn and I decided we would break ground on our water feature the following spring. As it turned out, we had a 2 week vacation around the end of August. We usually use that 2 weeks to play golf at courses around the state of Nebraska. I think we were in the midst of our 1st round of golf when I turned to Marilyn and said something to the effect of "I think I'd rather be building a pond." She responded, "Do you think Rocke could get us everything we need with this short of notice?" I can't remember if I called him right then or if I waited until we were done with that round of golf, but when I did call him to see if he could get us going, he basically responded, "No problem."
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Rocke brought over all the parts and pieces that are sold by Aquascape Design Inc. that we would need. He also ordered up the gravel, rocks and boulders we needed to get started. The next thing we did was to figure out where the pond and stream would be located, the shape and size of the pond, and the path of the stream. We decided to have the pond about half in the area where we already had mulch and assorted plants, and half in the area where the lawn was. Using spray cans of marking paint, Rocke painted the outline of the pond. Next we decided that the stream would start in the highest spot in the yard, the back right corner looking from the house. I started work by digging out the sod and placing it along the low side to build up a berm, making the pond level -- there was about a 20 inch difference between the low side and the high side.