Well pops and I been working on a family friends pond(s). The pond(s) and water fall were at the house when they bought it 10 years ago.
A few months back we drained the upper pond and clean it out. I wheel barrelled nearly 20 or more loads of muck, mud, slim, crap, decompossed leaves across the yards, I wanted to call up Mike Rowe!
Then we started the lower bigger pond two weeks ago. The perimeter was made of coquina rock, like you can see on the upper pond and water fall. I don't have any before pics of lower pond at this time, forgot the camera that day. But the dude built this thing to last his stay, didn't care for long term engineering.
Basically the guy dug a hole, put in landscape timbers (aw dumb, talk about rot), then the liner and fastened liner to timbers with 2x6 )aw rot). And the whole thing started to cave in, no support. The liner also had some holes in it, so owner wanted to replace the liner.
So we tore most of it up. we built a cement form for the perimeter lip, and used waterproof hardybacker to secure new liner to cement form. We left old liner in to protect against punctures from various earth abnomarlities.
I love the house, it is like a cool party house, very social like. The yard is quite eye catcher!
Anyways, about 50 60lb bags of cement used so far. We dug the pond out some, and uniformed it. The cement form just sits on dirt, but we build four cinder block posts to help support two sides. The liner and the pressure of the water will help support the perimeter. We have to finish building the trough to create a small water run from upper pond to lower pond to drain into. We used some slate stepping stones he had for a path in the yard, in which we halved with a tile saw, and used that as the new perimeter lip.
He has 6 big Koi (like goldfish). Seemed to have like 50 Chiclids in there, guess they breeed and eat any Koi babies, so he is leaving them in upper pond.
It's about the size of a small pool.
All the pics can be seen here:
http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m252/escapest01/Pond/

Nice, so when can I get hired.

Work is really slow now. My dad underbids all the folk, and with the economy as it is people are underbidding him, even the big wigs, just to get work. The phone is starting to ring again because the checks are in the mail!
But it has been slow for months. This is just a family friend who wants us to do the work.
Many folks been calling but saying the wage my dad is charging is too much. During the peak was getting $50 hour, that is him and I working, two guys for $50 an hour. He dropped it to $35 and folks are still complaining.
My dad's a/c guy, the guy he uses for rentals and tells people about, is having issues with his rival. The rival is calling the a/c guys customers and telling them they went under. So the a/c guy is sending out letters telling his customers that they didn't go under and feel free to call him still for repairs.
It is getting very crazy around here for people.
People are hurting bad.

Wow, 50 dollars in hour is a very good rate considering that its two people working.

Pfft. I read the title and expected to see a backhoe and something that was 20ft deep.

i like ponds but the water allways turns green if not maintained i LOVE to do yard work and building walls and stuff like that

Looking good so far.

sucks the market is so bad and cutthroat right now.

Are you and your dad good with home electrical and repairs as well? You could always expand into a "Handyman" service. Buddy I work with does that on the side and he get some decent coin for some of the stuff. Just the other day he got $30 for fixing a leaking washing machine hose. He was called out cause the hot water heater was leaking turned out it was the heater but the little rubber washer connecting the washer hose to the faucet. He hangs ceiling fans for $50 and so forth and so forth. Just an idea.

I'm an electrician with the City here. I use to work out of IBEW Local #212's hall here but too many lay offs with times getting tough I decided to take an $8 pay cut to stay busy.I charge about $80 - $100 to put up ceiling fans. I LOVE to do service changes. I can get anywhere from $1600 - $2500. For roughly 7-12 hrs. of work. And I generally do it by myself.

Sure do Herc, do you remember the kitchen thread:
http://www.grandprix.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=001703

7 minute video, but you can fast forward it if you want. We do just about everything, most things we do you need 3-5 different people to come in and do, from electrical, plumbing, tiling, you name it. And if we don't we know someone to call!
I've tried some plastering, but for big projects we have someone. For big electrical stuff we have some one. But for most things we manager ourselves.
Yah Home Depot charges $100 to install a fan. Shoot I would charge $25-30+ expenses and that'd be enough for me, I've installed nearly 100 fans.
Most of our jobs are from word of mouth, or school teachers (my dad retired 06 january from teaching and my mom is entering drop end of this semester, both 30 year)
The best thing is we go do a job and the person asks if we can do this or that. We end up doing 3-7 different jobs while were on the job because the person adds on more and more stuff, always happens.

thats fake...u know you didnt work on that...ur LIEING!!!! haha JK steve, nice job btw!

Yah, I am only in the pictures!

hahaha geez take a joke...dang...but ya u could be photoshopped...but geez i was JK!!