Step 1: Dig a hole

A Memorial Day weekend gave me an extra day which was well used and appreciated.  With nearly 2 days, and help from family members, I was able to get the lion's share of the hole dug.  But, first, a few pictures before shovel hit dirt.

In that last picture you can see the approximate locations of the skimmer and the waterfall. 

I was fortunate that the location was in tree shade for all but 2 hours of the day.  That, and a light breeze, made for a wonderful work day.  I planned for a 4' deep pond which means about 3.5' foot had to be dug out. The digging begins.

While digging I found about a million earth worms with this one being the biggest I have ever seen.

I got tired of throwing the shovel of dirt onto the pile so I started using buckets - fill them up and carry them out.  It slowed down the process but did make the overall effort easier.

In the following pictures you can see that I was working my way around and my bucket self was getting smaller and smaller.

Eventually I had to dig out the bucket shelf and lift the buckets of dirt from the bottom up and and set them on the wall.  From there my wife, Lynn, would empty them.  With three buckets we had a good system going.

Lynn approves of my work.