Progress report

Under the tarp: the bubbling boulder.

The project so far, starting on April 1st, working on it every free and dry day:

- Remove bench. Hand-pick flat river pebbles off the top of the large gravel basin and set aside.
- Two days into the project, I rip my toenail off with a heavy bucket.
- Remove all but 10% of the gravel from the 20 inch deep basin, one bucket at a time so the pond liner can be freed, pulled up and the basin shrunk. Sort pebbles into two piles, tumbled and jagged.
- Drain the rain water from the basin numerous times.
- Back fill the enormous donut-shaped hole with a mixture of sand and soil, one wheelbarrow at a time, tamping it down thoroughly. Simultaneously, add pebbles back into the basin to maintain the shape.
- Redo the grade to ensure proper drainage away from the garage and toward the back fence.
- Move two large hostas to make space for the bench's new location.
- Reinsert circulation pump into pump bucket.
- Make two trips to nurseries to acquire plants.

Today:
- Lay out and stake down landscape fabric to cover walking path to bench and underneath bench. Place bench in place, level it.
- Lay out large stepping stone path. Spread pebbles and pea gravel under bench and between stones until I run out of pea gravel.

Tomorrow:
- Fill the basin and test the water flow. If it looks good and I don't need to change the valve pressure, get more pebbles. Finish the path. Plant the plants. Mulch. Add river pebbles back in and arrange between plants and in path. Attach trellis to garage, plant two vines and weave them into the trellis.

All by 3:30 pm because I'm going to this to see Carmen McSnorty and drink vodka to help pugs.