The pond is a complete disaster. Brian came over the other week and took the waterfall apart for me (thanks, Brian!). I would not have been able to do that on my own, that is for sure. I’ve been looking at it ever since, trying to figure out what to do. A bunch of dirt fell behind the liner, so I cleaned that out this evening and tried to install some rocks on the ledge, which is pretty iffy since it had to be rebuilt (I’m afraid it will sink over time). I’ve decided not to rebuild the waterfall–I’m just going to put things back together as efficiently as possible. But it is definitely slow-going. I’m using smaller rocks for the rebuild, but I’m not feeling good about the whole process.
Also, I can’t do any of the mitigation steps, like laying hardware cloth or backfilling with rocks, because I’d basically have to excavate the hillside to do that. And, I was wrong about the liner. There’s only one liner for the whole pond, and not a separate one for the waterfall. And, there were some holes chewed in it near the top. I cut that part out, but that’s one of the many reasons why I’m not rebuilding the waterfall.
To add insult to injury, there are literally buckets of dirt in the pond. I’m not sure how I will ever get that cleaned up. I have to stand in the pond to work (Brian lent me his fishing boots for that), and it stirs everything up when I go in. I don’t know how the fish are still alive (I’m assuming they’re alive because I haven’t seen any evidence they are not, but I also haven’t seen any evidence that they are).