Day 7, Friday, June 5, 2026: Bringing the dirt back…
It’s hard to believe that we’ve been building this garden for a week now! P2 wasn’t going to join us today, so it was just D, P and Y. We got an even later start around 8:45.
Unbeknownst to Y, D and P had discussed a change in the plans around the lower pool where we now needed to extend the landing area. The plans of steps down from the South-East corner were altered after the advice we received from the friendly neighbourhood (read Kelowna) pond expert to extend the rim of our shelf on the top of the pond to accommodate the liner so it wouldn’t get exposed to the sun as we could also plant a lot more varieties of shrubs and plants in that terrain. This meant our big pond needed to get even wider, shrinking the walking path to a thin curve, thus necessitating a firmer landing extension. This also meant hauling back all the dirt and grass patches we had dug out from the garden area in the first place! Needless to say, minions could be heard grumbling about the overlords!
So, while D and P started building and evening out the landing (after P pulled out more rocks of course), Y shuffled back and forth between the debris dump site near the recycle section and lugging it to the big pond area. We were certainly not wanting for a workout.
In other news, mama E had grand plans to finish all the dinner prep early and spend some quality time filling out critical sections of our website. We now have a brief History section on there, yay!
Our second shift consisted of filling out the flat landing by the big pond. P and D also worked on widening the lip of the upper pond. P dug out a larger hole on the Southern side of the big pond to accommodate the skimmer. After that, we proceeded to dig out a trench for the water pipe connecting the pump to the upper pond, as well as the electrical cables. Though weary at the end of the day, the crew was still digging the trenches deeper, often adopting the strategic position of sitting on the ground and shoveling.
At dinner we asked D if he thought we were on track. D was very pleased with how far we’ve come in just a week, despite some half days of work, as are the rest of us! Prost!
