Not just a giant hole in the mud anymore!

Yay! The pond is finished! Progressive photos of the project can be found in the album.

It took the guys from Cool Ponds about 3 days to finish the installation. And with Doug's help, it's taken 3 very long weekend days and several weeknights after work to get the rest of the yard in order.

On the completed list:

• Flagstone path between house and garage
• Stone path to patio
• Stepping stones around strawberry bed by the garage
• Rebuilt poor, abused sod couch into Lawn Armchair (mostly done, still need to buy a roll of sod to finish)
• Cleaned gutters
• Built & installed 2nd rain barrel
• Got koi & goldfish for the pond
• Lots of mulching done
• Finished planting redesigned front prairie bed
• Finished redesigning & turning the veggie beds
• Bought a new fire dish (to replace the ponded-over fire pit)
  

On the still to be finished list:

• Find a contractor to finish fencing the yard
• Plant the rest of the veggie garden
• Buy sod to finish up the lawn furniture remodel
  
• Prettify the compost bins
• Finish moving the rest of the dirt from the pond excavation
• Plant grass seed around the flagstone path and the nook behind the pond
• Finish planting marginals in the pond
  
• Create & plant the 2 bog beds around the pond
• Get the cannas & elephant ear tubers out of the basement & plant
  
• Buy & install a bit more lighting for the pond
  
• Dig back the mulch & re-edge the pebble patio with bricks
• When the first rain barrel gets empty, raise it up on another level of cinder blocks & paint it (no more bright blue barrel!)
• Get some flower seeds planted around the yard
• Finish more landscaping around the pond
• Continue redesigning the front prairie planting to be more acceptable to the lawn police
• Get the chipper back to the shop to see why it's STILL not running (Sigh)
• Convince the City of Indianapolis that the prairie planting in the front yard is not weeds
  

Whew. The "to do" list seems entirely too long. I'm tired already!