A Fish Tale
I was so excited when we first looked at our house, before we bought it. One reason was because, in the backyard, just a few feet from the back door, was a fish pond. It didn't matter that it was square and painted bright blue; it didn't even matter that it no longer held water. It was there, filled with potential.
One of my earliest memories of my grandparents' farm is of the fish pond in their yard. It was a small, shallow cement pond, an oval of maybe three feet by two feet, not more than ten inches deep in the center. That's where the tank goldfish lived in the summer, under the shade of a big old tree. I would sit there with Aunt Marilyn for long stretches of time, just watching the fish dart around the pond.
We moved to Norfolk when I was almost five, and my grandparents, along with Marilyn, followed in just a few weeks. For the first time in their lives, Grandpa and Grandma had a beautiful, new house in town. Grandma soon planted an abundance of gorgeous flowers all around the edge of the grassy back yard.
There were plenty of bushes and birds in the yard, too, and a big old tree close to the house, but no pond. One day, Marilyn and I set out to remedy that problem. She was nine, and I was five. We spotted a bag of cement in the garage, so we poured some into a bucket with some water, and stirred it up with a stick. We dug a pond-sized hole under the tree, and spread the wet cement in the hole until we had what we thought was the perfect pond. Then we waited for the cement to dry. However, our pond was destined to crumble into dust, because we didn't know that cement and water have to be mixed with sand, in the correct proportions, in order to harden into concrete.
I know that Marilyn has built at least one backyard pond in the years since. And I started researching ponds as soon as we moved into this house. We wanted a child-safe pond that would sustain the fish all winter long. After several years of planning, we stair-stepped the square, seven-by-seven foot pond with concrete blocks so that the ledge at the edge of the pond was only a few inches deep; the middle, at 2 1/2 feet deep, was deep enough to keep the fish alive even when ice covers the pond. Meagan was my willing assistant, with additional help from Bill and our friend, Mark. We lined the pond with sand and styrofoam, before adding a polyurathane pond liner. We covered the brick edge with wooden planks, added rocks, a pump and filter system, and finally, water lilies and fish.
We've enjoyed our backyard pond for more than ten years. Victoria and Levi have each fallen into the pond only once, and have been able to get out easily, proving that the pond is, indeed, child-safe. Some years, the fish survive all winter long. Other years, we start over in the spring with new fish. The kids and I have built a variety of interesting watercraft to sail on the pond. Since we don't have a big tree close enough to shade the pond, we hang a triangular sun shade each summer to protect the pond from overheating. I can watch the fish from my kitchen window, but my favorite perch for fish-viewing is on the wooden bench that edges the pond. I would love to sit there for hours, watching the fish, but I am content to just snatch a few minutes here and there to gaze at the brightly colored goldfish darting around the pond.
One of my earliest memories of my grandparents' farm is of the fish pond in their yard. It was a small, shallow cement pond, an oval of maybe three feet by two feet, not more than ten inches deep in the center. That's where the tank goldfish lived in the summer, under the shade of a big old tree. I would sit there with Aunt Marilyn for long stretches of time, just watching the fish dart around the pond.
We moved to Norfolk when I was almost five, and my grandparents, along with Marilyn, followed in just a few weeks. For the first time in their lives, Grandpa and Grandma had a beautiful, new house in town. Grandma soon planted an abundance of gorgeous flowers all around the edge of the grassy back yard.
There were plenty of bushes and birds in the yard, too, and a big old tree close to the house, but no pond. One day, Marilyn and I set out to remedy that problem. She was nine, and I was five. We spotted a bag of cement in the garage, so we poured some into a bucket with some water, and stirred it up with a stick. We dug a pond-sized hole under the tree, and spread the wet cement in the hole until we had what we thought was the perfect pond. Then we waited for the cement to dry. However, our pond was destined to crumble into dust, because we didn't know that cement and water have to be mixed with sand, in the correct proportions, in order to harden into concrete.
I know that Marilyn has built at least one backyard pond in the years since. And I started researching ponds as soon as we moved into this house. We wanted a child-safe pond that would sustain the fish all winter long. After several years of planning, we stair-stepped the square, seven-by-seven foot pond with concrete blocks so that the ledge at the edge of the pond was only a few inches deep; the middle, at 2 1/2 feet deep, was deep enough to keep the fish alive even when ice covers the pond. Meagan was my willing assistant, with additional help from Bill and our friend, Mark. We lined the pond with sand and styrofoam, before adding a polyurathane pond liner. We covered the brick edge with wooden planks, added rocks, a pump and filter system, and finally, water lilies and fish.
We've enjoyed our backyard pond for more than ten years. Victoria and Levi have each fallen into the pond only once, and have been able to get out easily, proving that the pond is, indeed, child-safe. Some years, the fish survive all winter long. Other years, we start over in the spring with new fish. The kids and I have built a variety of interesting watercraft to sail on the pond. Since we don't have a big tree close enough to shade the pond, we hang a triangular sun shade each summer to protect the pond from overheating. I can watch the fish from my kitchen window, but my favorite perch for fish-viewing is on the wooden bench that edges the pond. I would love to sit there for hours, watching the fish, but I am content to just snatch a few minutes here and there to gaze at the brightly colored goldfish darting around the pond.
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