There's the easy way .......... and there's Himself's way!

As many of you will know by now, Himself was born in the wrong time period .......... he SO should have been a Victorian engineer/inventor! He loves a good intellectual challenge and never knowingly under-engineers anything - why use 2 screws when 4 would be better?! Me? I'm someone who looks for the simplest, most straightforward solution - which can sometimes lead us to 'having words' over how things are done!

Anyway, Himself decided that the optimum way to put the concrete support post into the water was to build a casson, pump out the water and clear the debris off the bottom of the pond, make a 'pillow' out of pond liner filled with cement, put the pillow on the pond bed in the casson then lower the post down into the casson and onto the pillow before levelling it.

Here's Himself putting the finishing touches to the casson. He angled the edges of all the planks so that they would fit together snugly like a barrel. It was held secure by ropes, then covered in plastic sheeting (I'm sure he had a reason, but heaven only knows what it was!) and made a skirt of pond liner to help weigh it down.

We roped Chris and OJ into helping for the day. Here they are moving the casson to the edge of the pond. If you enlarge the photo you can see a white sausage-shaped bag, held on with yet more rope, going right round the casson as an extra weight. First-Born made it out of an old dustsheet and we filled it with pea gravel.

I spent a lot of time going " couldn't we just .........?", " wouldn't it be easier if .......?" and "what if we just ..........." and being thoroughly ignored, so I let them get on with it in their own sweet (complicated) way!


The casson being lowered into the pond.

Using the pond pump to get the water out,

........but the old-fashioned bucket and chuck it method was faster!



Chris decided that the best way to clean the grunge and bits off the bottom was to dive in head first!

Bringing the post onto site. It had had two coats of sealant to make sure the concrete didn't leach into the water and poison the plants and the (currently non-existent) fish.

I am holding the 'pillow' in preparation for filling.

OJ filled the pillow and ensured the cement got into all the corners.

Chris then placed the pillow in the bottom of the casson.

The post was carried onto the planks..........

attached to the chain hoist then with Chris being the counter-weight (makes a nice change from it being me!) and OJ providing resistance to stop the post from swinging...........

the post was carefully lowered into the casson.........

until it nestled gently on the pillow.

Me? I'd have slid the pillow down the edge into the water, shoved it into place and lowered the concrete post onto it ....... but hey, what do I know?!!!