TheBanyanTree: Stone

[Sachet]

I learn a lot from various friends in my life and I applied some of that 
knowledge today in prepping my version of a mini-"job site" for the 
stone surround.

I contemplated the drainage issue and at first was just going to dig a
little moat around the entire pond. Then I thought heck no! The rain
would just continually push the soil down and so I needed a long-term
solution; because these stones aren't light-weight fake stuff and they
need to stay in place once I get them there.

Soooooooo I made a little french drain allllllllll around it (gravel,
white cloth and all). Well, only one side is done so far because, unlike
in the big manly world of construction, in my little world they don't 
make tiny
excavators. Alas. A tiny remote controlled excavator would have been
very nice.

It takes a freakin' long time and LOTS of digging with a hand-tool to
get the right gradient with the soil so that it will drain and not
continue to pool. And I remembered that a vertical
mountain-side is not as prone to erosion. So my tiny little version
of a mountain-side around the pond is vertical and not slanted.

I figured it all out and am quite proud of myself. :-)

Then there is the placing of the stones. It's such a paradox, that in
order to achieve the nonchalant back-to-nature look, you have to
carefully and oh-so-precisely fit each one into place after *repeatedly*
staring at the selection of sizes to figure out whether you need a a big
one, a little one, a curved piece, one with a straight edge or a combo.
But that was the fun part! I don't like jigsaw puzzles, but I do enjoy
working with stone because I can touch the textures, see all the
beautiful striations in the stone and the delightfully immediate
gratification of seeing it all fall into place.

And the pièce de résistance is that I figured out what I am going to do
with all the rest of the stone! I'm gonna outline my fire-pit butterfly
wings with stone so it will all flow together.

Is that cool or what?!?!?! <g>

Yeah, I knew you would be thrilled, too. ;-)