Rain and Contractors-Blah to Both

This spring has been marked by a distinct lack of gardening posts.  Why?  Because I cannot get into the yard.  The entire month of April has been about gloom and cold and rain.  What a contrast to last year!  On those rare days where it actually hasn't rained, the yard has been too gooey to do more than pick up sticks.  I am far far behind and the forecast for the next seven days?  More rain.  Blah

We have made some progress on the patio project in that we have had three companies out to give us a bid.  So far we have received one bid back,  It was from the guy that I didn't like too much.  The bid was reasonable.  Except that he forgot a few things.  Sigh.

 I also got a bid on the pond.  It was an internet bid.  I emailed them pictures of the site and a basic description of what we wanted.  They emailed me back a price of 20K+, without any description of what their most awesome pond plan was whatsoever.  Oh they did say that they know that they are higher but it is because they are better.   Needless to say, they can go soak their heads in one of their most awesome ponds.  I'll pass.

We have another guy coming to look at the site on Friday and hold out hope that the first guy that told us two weeks will come thru for us.  We liked him the best.  The more we consider this project the more I think that I may just do the pond myself.  I'll pay to have it excavated and do the rest.  All of the guys I've talked to so far clearly know the Aquascape variety of pond installation and that's not what I want.  I want low maintenance so I can spend days reading and  gazing at fish instead of vacuuming up their poop.

Edit to say:  Huh, within hours of this post, I got an email that gave more information about the pond design.  So I've decided to remove the pond company name.  Their price however, is still inflated so I'll still be taking a pass.