Pond story

I've done a sort of strip cartoon of our progress on our pond today - top left to bottom right:

Mike being remarkably cheerful despite being extremely muddy as he levelled the bottom of the hole.  The hole ready to go.  MrHCB loading builders sand into the tractor bucket.  We didn't have a digging attachment for the tractor, which meant we had to dig the hole by hand, but the tractor was very useful for bringing 1.2 tonnes of sand up the hill.  First load of sand arriving.  Discussion of tactics.  Careful manoeuvring.  Once the bottom of the hole was lined with sand, does the liner fit?  Yes, it does.  Mike then knocked off and MrHCB and I used 1 tonne of builders sand, followed by 200kg of kiln-dried fine sand, to fill every nook and cranny.   It's now ready for some topsoil round the edge for plants that like boggy ground.  I'm sure the surrounding grass will recover eventually.  How come it looks smaller now we've finished - it didn't look small while we were digging!