Pond Refurbishing Labor Troubles

The lily pond in our garden is about 90 years old and as it was not constructed with any kind of circulating system, it had turned into a marsh dominated by sacred lotus. While a happy home to quite a diversity of dragon flies and amphibians, the annual spring visit by ducks three years ago had provided an example of plant dispersal by bringing in duckweed which rendered moot the presence or absence of fish beneath the green expanse, all of which resulted in the decision to rennovate the entire pond. Enter the Pond Lady, quite crazily obsessed by ponds. She and her older assistant probably have a total age of around 100 and a total height of about ten and a half feet, so they employ strapping young men to assist with moving the cinder blocks, rocks, old cement, sand, and soil needed for the project. Here's the pond as it looked this spring with a couple of pallets of cinder block waiting for deployment. Pond Lady has been through 5 or 6 young men this summer alone. The last one, new to the job Monday, left for lunch on Tuesday and never returned. He lasted half a day longer than one earlier this summer who simply said, "It (the work) is too hot and dirty." Assistant pond lady laughs, shakes her head, and says, "They just can't keep up with us. We're tough!" How true especially when compared to 20-something marshmallows (my preferred spelling). In spite of slower than anticipated progress due to these labor problems, new plumbing is now in place and the pond is once again filled with water, so in a couple of weeks the project will be done except for all the new landscaping required. Oh, yes, the lotus, being sacred, was preserved, but it will be confined rather than allowed to roam freely.