ok, hmmm... let's see...
No excavator. Just me. It's a small pond. A very small pond. I dug it for the sole purpose of raising mosquito fish.
I dug it deep enough that a cinder block would be completely underground, so 8". It is 4 cinder blocks square so about 56" on each side on the outside.
First I dug the hole and removed the dirt. That was a back breaker! Then I covered the bottom of the hole with 1/2" hardware cloth. I didn't want some digging thing to come up underneath and chew a hole through my liner. After the hardware cloth, I put in the blocks. They were stacked two high so it's only about 16" deep. Then I got some old carpet from the local carpet store... otherwise known as dumpster diving. I covered the whole bottom and up the sides.
The cinder blocks were filled and packed with dirt from the excavation to hold them in place and no I didn't trust just that to hold them. Around the top, I put 2x10 lumber. I set it all on top and cut everything to fit. I used 2x2 lumber on the bottom sides up against the cinder blocks to add additional support to the dirt packed holes of the blocks.
For the liner I used one of those billboard tarps. I fit that into the hole over the carpet, up and over the 2x10s on the top. That was a job too! As I got the liner up over the 2x10s, I would remove one of the supporting 2x2s, wrap the tarp up against the cinder blocks and put the 2x2 back in its place. Then I cut the excess tarp off. I did this all the way around. The corners of the pond were the most difficult part (outside of excavating) as I had to fold/roll at very stiff tarp up the inside corners and even on the top, some of it had to remain folded. But each side was rolled over the top and secured underneath with the 2x2s.
For overwintering, I managed to locate a black camper shell on Craigslist for free. I wanted a black one so that it would absorb as much winter sun as possible so my fish wouldn't die over winter. It might even stay warm enough for them to keep breeding and raise tons of fry. It doesn't exactly fit the top of the pond. There are a couple of things I need to do to make that work.
I also have plans in my head for setting up a water circulation device that doesn't need electricity. We have enough wind here that I'm pretty sure it can be done. The device will need to be able to be taken apart only at the top so that when I have the camper shell on there, the wind can still circulate the water.
If this is as clear as mud to you, I can get some pictures or do some diagrams to help.
