Is it because he knows that he will likely be doing mostly all of the work? :lol:

.. I don't blame him. Digging sucks.

No, I would likely be doing some of the work. And yes digging does suck. However, I would not be doing an overly monstrous pond, just something big enough and deep enough to overwinter fish (not like we have "real" winters here anyways). His argument used to be that we had a dog that liked water and likely he'd be in the pond at any given time that he was outside. Now the dog is gone and his argument will likely be that we have kids and we'd have to watch them (because we don't right now? :rolleyes:) or fence the pond and bla bla bla. It goes on and on. I like to argue for things I can win and I don't see winning that one so I just pick my battles.

well, those are definitely valid arguments. More or less the same considerations that I had to take before proceeding. Well, minus the dog.

well thanks Kien, now I'm never gonna get a pond. Sheesh :razz:

I said I took them into consideration. I didn't say that I lost that argument :P

The only true issue was the kids. In the end we both decided that we would never, ever leave the kids in the backyard alone, ever. In fact, even if we didn't have the pond I doubt that i would ever let them play in the backyard alone until they are much older, like double digits old. Even without the pond there are so many things that could get them into trouble. If we are in the back yard and have to go inside the house for whatever reason, even to go potty we will bring the kids back inside. We have also taught them to be more careful when playing around the pond. Grant, telling a toddler to 'be careful' is like telling a tree to stop standing. Funny thing is, our oldest son who is 6 now did fall into the pond once, but only because I sat there and watched and waited for him to fall in. Ya, I'm cruel like that but I wanted him to learn the lesson :lol: He was leaning too close to the edge trying to grab a fish. I repeatedly told him that if he wasn't careful he would fall in. And as I sat there watching him, sure enough, he rolled into the pond. The pond isn't that deep (another safety precaution) so he could stand up but still, the water is cold and he learned his lesson. :twised:

Hey kien if you wanta keep the kids out of the pond you can babysit my pike for the summer haha, unfortunatly im stuck renting again so no pond for the pike again unless i can get something built in the basement

That reminds me. A few years back I built my first with a friend at his house and we first stocked it with simple pond comets. Then we thought it would be cool to stock it with lake fish like catfish and threw in a bass. Apparently bass like to eat pond comets. Oops! :redface:

Still too early here for new ponds. I spent last weekend digging through frozen ground for a deck, that was hard enough but would have been impossible for a pond. Anyone thinking of digging soon would be wise to wait for the ground to thaw.

Here you go. This pic was taken last weekend.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps060a5697.jpg

And some lily buds that are already coming out!
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps356dd151.jpg

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps90a5b87a.jpg

And this is a baby that I found. He must have hatched from the egg last year and survived not getting eaten and survived the winter.
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...psf823258e.jpg

With the winter we've had it's nice to see lilies growing out of the rocks. Dez, the pond looks great even at this time of the year!