Steal of a Deal

Last weekend I found a great deal on Craig's list. It was just too good to pass up. As I was browsing the garden section I found large retaining wall bricks for $1 each. I was excited because we have been wanting to get some to go around our small pond for a couple years, but not wanting to spend the money. Rich and I talked about it and decided we couldn't pass up this deal. Fortunately, I was the second person to email. The gentleman had 150 bricks and the first person only wanted 110. It worked out perfectly because we only wanted 40-50 bricks.


That Saturday we made arrangements to pick up the bricks. It was raining most of the day, but we didn't care. It worked out that my parents were visiting, so we had access to their Yukon for just that day. We were really blessed during this project because it stopped raining just long enough to get the bricks loaded (took 1 1/2 hours). We were also happy to have my parents SUV because the bricks turned out to be much bigger and heavier than we anticipated. The 40, I mean 39 (I miss counted), bricks barely fit into the back of my parents Yukon and we never would have been able to get them in our Impala. Having my dad's help was also nice because I was unable to lift the bricks. It was a hard, messy, and back breaking pond, but for $40 it was definitely worth it.

These are the bricks unloaded on our back lawn. Rich was filthy dirty and a true champion for doing most of the work.

You might notice in the background half of the bark is gone. After several years we (mainly me) have decided we HATE it! It is too hard to keep nice with all the trees around. We can't use our blower because it blows the bark too. Also the neighborhood cats like to use it has a liter box. Our plan is to eventually fix up the area and put in pea gravel. It probably will be a year or two, but no bark is better than dirty, smelly bark.

The bricks are huge and heavy. I was frustrated because I couldn't move them and was not much help. Rich thought they weighed around 50lbs. I thought for sure I could move that much weight, so we decided to weigh them to find out the truth. WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY WEIGH? We were all wrong and under.

This Saturday we put the bricks around the pond. Again Rich did most of the work and he did a great job. It is not his dream Koi pond, but it looks so much nicer. The only problem is now Ava wants to climb on the bricks and play in the water.

Rich has 2 fish in the pond and a variety of plants. The tree is a curly willow. Rich just recently bought some Lotus seeds and sprouted them. Yesterday he planted them and placed them in the pond. We are excited to see if they will grow. (Lotus seeds=$5 for 5 seeds; Lotus plant=$50+ for one plant).