Sweet Determination

What a gloriously sunny and warm late September and early October it has been here, I was certainly not expecting it but it is definitely a welcome surprise!

The Blue (and green) border enjoying some October sun. This bed is still 'unfinished' and mainly planted for establishment, 
hence the stakes and wires on some of the plants. It's also largely unmulched, hopefully we'll get that done in the next few weeks.

When a forecast for an unseasonably warm spell was announced last week I immediately thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to finish the concrete base of the koi pond. As I wasn’t expecting such warmth at this time of the year we made an impromptu decision to go ahead and made plans about ten days ago in preparation for this huge task, by making enquiries for the delivery of ready mixed cement and looking at equipment hire. First, we left it too late to order some ready mixed cement to be delivered so that’s out of the equation, but equipment hire of a cement mixer is still fine so at least we can avail of that.

But what I wasn’t counting on was Gaz catching the flu, and a bad one too.

So what am I supposed to do now?  Having such fine stretch of days and miss out on the golden opportunity to do something important was too much to bear. Mind you, I wasn’t expecting that we’ll have the base fully laid till next year so the thought of having it done this year will be a fantastic bonus.

So last weekend, with Gaz feeling under the weather but strong enough to do some light work, I just told him that we’ll do as much as we can without pushing ourselves to the limit. I didn’t want to tire him out, and I was fine myself so I told him to stay within the pond (which is under a shade) and leave all the hard work to me. I will do all of the shovelling, dry mixing, wheel barrowing, wet mixing, bucketing, and all he needed to do was stay in the hole so I can pass the concrete mix, half a bucket at a time, to him to pour it on the hole and do the levelling.

I decided to ditch hiring the cement mixer as in our situation it would have made very little difference in easing off the work burden and would just be a waste of time. Doing it all manually would just be as efficient in this case 

And so we did this, all of last and this weekend. And we finished it Sunday afternoon.

As I stood from a corner looking at the finished base, Gaz, being the ‘maths’ person that he is told me, ‘Considering the ballast, cement, and water you shifted, you just hand mixed four tonnes of concrete.’

Four tonnes, oh my goodness! Until a week ago it has never, ever crossed my mind that I would end up hand mixing all the concrete to make the base of this pond. I had always thought we’ll get it delivered ready mixed and pumped in situ, or at least use a cement mixer. But hand mixed….

All through out I never thought of figures and the total amount of what I’m shifting, just pleased to see the base slowly building up to the desired level, and finishing it in two weekends would exceed my expectations (which we did). So I was genuinely astounded when I heard the total figures. I guess I’m a lot stronger that I thought, considering I’m not exactly a big person either.

‘You’re a determined one aren’t you?’ Gaz told me last Sunday evening, recovering already from his illness. Yes I am, always have been and a personal character I cherish within me.

My body is very achy now, and my hands are sore. I’ll rest on my laurels for a few days to give my body a chance to recover but after that I can get cracking with the rest of the built again. At least Gaz has recovered now and we can have a fairer division of manual labour again, hehe! For now I’m just glad the base is done, it’s a fabulous personal bonus :-)

Mark 

Posted in: Pond build