Back Yard Pond Project

This is a weekend project that got a little out of hand, as all of them do. A few years ago I built an ephemeral pond in the back yard to catch the outflow from a French drain I installed on the south side of the house. I always had the idea of putting a liner in it and creating a real pond. The project became a little more urgent two weeks ago when my wife went to dump a below-grade bird bath in the backyard and found that it was full of tadpoles. She did not want to dump the tadpoles, but the bird bath was also full of mosquito larvae. So we purchased a liner, dug the pond and filled it with water. With some help from the kids, the tadpoles were scooped out of the bird bath and transferred into the pond, along with some mosquito-eating fish from the pet store. So now everyone is happy. Later that day a female painted bunting visited our pond. The formerly-below-grade birdbath is now sitting on a stand.