This is my second pond; the first one was built in 1994 in approximately
the same location but was much smaller, about twelve feet by four feet
and twenty-two inches deep. It had no filtration but supported twenty-
four or more goldfish and several large lilies. The left hand end, about
two and half feet, was a bog garden which I made by "walling" off a
section and filling it with peat moss into which various bog plants were
placed.

My first pond cost me very little. I had thought about building a pond
for a while, but he cost of materials put me off. Then Home Depot (it was
Atikenheads here in Mississauga) opened a big-box store. They made two
mistakes in their first flyer, they advertised "pond liner" 25 ft by 300
ft for $87 and they did not put the usual disclaimer of "Errors and
Omissions Excepted". When I went to the store I was expecting to find
some thin heavy-duty poly-film, which I was going to use in double or
triple layer, what I found was .7mm ABSAT. I have never seen this stuff
anywhere since. It was very heavy and rather difficult to work with.
Furthermore, it is impossible to repair, nothing sticks to it and I have
not found a way of welding it together except heat.
When I went to buy the stuff it showed up with two prices, $87 the roll
or $8.70 a linear foot, I was referred to the manager, who went
ballistic, not at me but at some poor devil in the office. He then asked
me how much did I really need and I told him about fifteen feet (no
ambition back then) and he said "Ok, I'll give you for $5", I though $5 a
foot was pretty good, only he meant $5 for the lot. Pond one was a go!!

The original fish were some "large" feeders. Most of which died within a
few days, I do not think it was anything to do with the pond more the
quality of the fish. The survivors got together and started breeding next
thing we knew was that we had about forty-five goldfish. Over the next
couple of years, the numbers settled down to around twenty-four fish.
There must have been lots of food because they grew to between four and
eight inches, most with beautiful flowing tails. Then last fall I had a
visitor, a great blue heron, before I could get the pond netted I was
down to five or six fish. All the big ones were gone. Next we had a very
cold winter, the pump shutdown, the pond froze right through. Not only
that but once it had thawed out in the spring I seemed to have a huge
leak. Time to rebuild, so we have pond Mark II.