Jed Wolf

Though there are no rocks here, Florida roots ripped apart my last one, so I bought the toughest new shovel I could find to begin hand-digging a backyard wildlife pond. My heavy duty spade weighs over twenty pounds because even the handle is heavy steel. Naysayers and supporters alike may be interested in following me for the next few months as I move 2,200 cubic feet of soil/sand/shell/root by hand to make way for the 30’ X 30’ liner. 

I’ve been dreaming of having a biggish pond down here for years, though nothing else has manifested except for this purchase, now that the weather’s cooled, I dream of punishing my body severely again, – like I did in my early twenties, hand-digging human graves. Only this time, instead of running into bones, and rotting wooden caskets near the Canadian border, here in Florida I might unearth Spanish Doubloons while digging my way to a great physique or my own grave if this project kills me.

The pond will be an average of 3’ deep – just enough to drown toddlers, breed microbes draw snakes, coons, frogs and egrets – “perfect” in a word for me who, though I care less and less for children in my advancing years, will have a fenced yard. 

It will fill the sunlit space in the pic. We will be able to view it from the house while doing dishes with my arthritic hands and disproportionately muscled back.

With a Zen approach, it be ready for fish by early spring. Hopefully sooner. Herons, egrets and Ibis will reflect on it along with me, with my bulging muscles and calm demeanor as I regularly scoop out leaves and other debris carefully avoiding deadly amoebas, other aquatic parasites and naysayers of this project, who’s warnings of doom draw alligators and cottonmouths.

I’ve built plenty of ponds up north and look forward to getting this done without destroying anything in the landscape with machinery. I wired the house with it’s own dedicated pond circuit, have designed the gutters and leaders to drain into it and have a trickle of old artesian well water to top it off during drought. There will be a “Moon River” of plants to filter the slightly tea-colored water to keep it clear. The only issue is getting started.

Perhaps other gym-bored, “huckleberry friends” care to join in the fun?