Please avoid doing what I did when I dug one of my ponds. I did it on a day when my son was at school and all of my neighbors were at work. I dug the pond all in one day, and it was big -- rectangular, about 10' x 20' and 4 1/2' deep. Well, I'm not very tall and I realized at the end that I couldn't get out. It never occurred to me to bring a ladder down into the hole (although I did bring my cigarettes and a lighter, because I know a thing or two about the essentials). I had to dig even deeper for some soil to make some steps so that I could get out. They came in handy as ledges for containers of water plants later, though, so I'm actually glad I made that mistake.
