We are building a fishpond !

My husband started by making me a wheelchair ramp off of the front door because the steps were hard for me to do, and he was afraid that I would fall and hurt myself. Then, he added on a small deck so we can sit outside in nice weather.
Now, he has built a semi-circle out in front of the deck, and when it is finished; it will be a small fish pond with a fountain.
That will not be until next spring, but I am looking forward to having the pond and getting some plants and goldfish to put in it.
It should be a nice cool-sounding noise when we sit out on the deck with our morning coffee, and listen to the birds chirping and the fountain splashing.

Good luck with your pond.
Make sure it will have a filter system running 24/7. Aquarium or pond, they all need a filter system. There are actually fountains with built-in filter for sale. Don't overstock your pond with too many fish.
How big will it be? In gallons?

Thank you for the great tips, Thor ! ! We are planning on having a filter system in it, and if we can get a fountain that already has a filter, that seems like a good way to do it. Both of those would need electricity to run them, so if it is all in one unit, then one plug-in would run everything.
My husband said that it should be around 50 gallons when it is full, so not real large, but big enough that I can have a few goldfish. I would have guess more water than 50 gallons, because it will be bigger than my horse trough was, and that was about 50 gallons. (I used to have to haul water before I got hooked to county water, and it took most of a 55 gallon drum to fill the water trough.)
I actually had a couple of goldfish that lived in the horse trough in the summer, and then inside in the fishtank during the cold winter months. They did fine with out any kind of filtration system, but of course, the horses and deer were drinking the water; so I had to refill it every couple of days, which meant the fish always had fresh water.

50 gallon is enough for only 2 goldfish. Any more might cause ammonia spike since goldfish are messy.
Since it is going to be an outdoor pond, you might as well make it bigger. Something like 500 to 1500 gallon will do better as an outdoor pond with fish. The more water you have, the less the weather will affect the pond.

I talked to my husband about the size of the pond, Thor. Since he already has the semi-circle built, and just needs the inside covering on so it will hold water; the one he is building out front will have to stay the size it is, and either have only a couple of the little goldfish in it, or maybe just be a splashy fountain and not have fish at all.
He said that there is plenty of room out in the back yard to make a larger pond out there that could actually hold the fish better; so we might end up having to do that instead.
Regardless, it is not going to happen until next spring/summer; so I will have a better idea of what we can do by then.
I didn't realise that a goldfish would need so much water ! I remember having one when I was a kid, and we just had it in one of those little oval goldfish bowls. We had to take it out pretty often and change the water because it got dirty fast; but the fish seemed to do ok as long as we did that.

http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-wRN0qL...GE_359.jpg

Here is a link to a picture of the deck that my husband has been building, and you can see the place where the founain/pond is going to be. It is the semi-circle of wood in the front.
Yes, I know that it is just lattice behind it . (I keep telling him that the fish are going to just swim out of there...)
By next spring we can put a liner in it, and the pump/filter and add the water and fish. I guess, it is actually not what you would call a fishpond, since they are usually in the ground, or at least partially in the ground; whereas this is more like a fountain, which is often built above ground.
I can at least put some pond plants in it, so it will be pretty when we look at it. Once those are doing well, I can try a goldfish or two and see how they do.
Goldfish grow depending on the size of the tank, so even if I start with little ones, they should grow in there.