Of all of the construction phases, the dig went pretty smooth. Are there things I would have done different? You bet.

The very first thing is to reserve your topsoil in a different location than the rest of the soil (or in my case, clay) or else it will end up on the bottom of the pile. I ended up having to bring in a truckload of top soil anyway, but that’s beside the point. I should have thought about it.

Because one of my customers is in the business, I had the good fortune not to have to pay for the work being done. This made me a little more reluctant than usual to ask for special work, even though my operator was a sculptor on the backhoe.

I had him build me a shelf on the low side of the lower pond, and also leave soil there to create a berm.

Again, the native clay soil enabled me to dig nearly vertical walls which was to my advantage.

If I had to do it again, I would have stayed away from the corners with the backhoe and carved the corners by hand for a more rounded look and more contour (kidney shaped pool etc.) But once it’s done, it’s done and I’m happy.