But unfortunately, we have not finished building the pond....  It rained pretty hard on Wednesday and although Jeff covered the pond hole with plastic to try to prevent it, the water still found its way to the lowest point in the front garden.  Now we have about a foot of water in the bottom of the pond which we will remove using a submersible pump.

The submersible pump is lowered into the water and attached to a garden hose

and the pumping begins.  It is a little hard to see the water coming out of the hose, but this little pump is working its heart out!

In less than an hour, most of the water was out of the pond

but we have a much bigger issue.  The sides of the pond have collapsed in our own little mini-mud slide.  Now we have experienced the two types of major natural disasters that are constantly plaguing California - a wild fire and a mud slide. 

The mud has slid down onto the edge of the floor of the pond form covering the rebar reinforcement

and also has collapsed inside the concrete forms. 

We will have to dig all the collasped dirt out before we can pour the concrete.

It is a sad day for the pond project.