Relining a Fish Pond Yourself!

The fish pond in the backyard was both a plus and a minus when we were considering buying our house.  I didn't want to deal with fish dying if the water quality were to go south.  Turns out that isn't a problem (at least not so far, and I hope it never is!), but the problem turned out to be everything else.

Pond in the fall when we were looking at the house.  One good thing is the net which kept out most of the leaves!  None of which were raked up before we bought the house, btw...

Problem #1:

If you didn't install the pond yourself (or have it done by someone else), do not have your pond professionally cleaned unless you are prepared to reline it. 



We paid more than $200 to have the pond cleaned way back in March before we moved into the house.  The pond was so full of garbage that I was afraid the fish would die if we didn't have it cleaned.  It didn't occur to me at all that the liner would be riddled with holes after the cleaning, and that the "professional" company would be total crap to deal with.  Maybe I should have known, since their name is "Economy Aquatic Gardens"...  After we discovered the leak that immediately brought the pond level down by half, they were completely unhelpful and implied that we should have known this could happen after cleaning.


Problem #2:

Start learning how to reline your pond.

A day or two after cleaning, the pond level shot down to the level shown in this photo from March.  Fortunately it pretty much stayed at that level, except for evaporation (or perhaps another very sloooow leak), so the fish were ok and we didn't have to fill it more than once a week to keep it at this level.  But we obviously couldn't keep just filling up the pond, so I started researching how to reline it.  It took weeks to get everything set, but only because I had a feeling it would be really hard physically and I didn't want to do it!

Soon after "professional" cleaning, water dropped half a foot.

Problem #3:

Take your time.
  
Unless you have immense amounts of energy or have a major leak and need to get it fixed quickly, take your time! I started by moving the rocks off the liner a few at a time.  Part of the reason for taking my time with this was because the rock bottoms were slug heaven and I wanted to give them a chance to crawl away to a new home.  There were also several ant colonies, centipedes, little rolly grey bugs, some spiders, and did I mention slugs?  It was pretty cool how I could uncover a whole nest of slugs (what are a group of slugs called?) and then see that they all crawled away by the next day.

Moving the rocks off the liner.

Can you see all of the algae?  It's an infestation of hair algae.  I was totally overfeeding the fish (twice a day... what a liar the can of food is!).  No more!

Problem #4:


Get your materials ready.


 I bought:

• Big inflatable kiddie pool (holds about 200 gallons) for the fish and pond water (we bought this one from Target--it was perfect and not too expensive)
• Utility wagon for moving rocks, liner, and everything else
• Firestone Pondgard liner (from Pond and Fountain World in Louisville, it was cheaper online but not once shipping was added in)
• Underlayment (also from Pond and Fountain World)
• 2100 GPH Hurricane Pump
• Waterfall filter (we didn't get a box with it--how weird is that-- so I don't know the make or model but it has a 16" falls)
• Three flagstones that were incredibly overpriced from Home Depot ($7 each!  For rocks!)
• A bottle of water treatment for chlorine removal, etc
•  Mesh laundry bag to use as pre-filter to protect the pump (it was only $1 at the Dollar Store :) )
• Bicycle type pump to blow up the pool (turns out the little hand pump I have for my exercise ball is NOT strong enough)
• Oh I almost forgot!  Hose and fittings.  That was a nightmare figuring out the right size and kind of hose and right size and kind of fittings. Who knew that no one at Home Depot or Lowe's could figure out how to attach a small diameter pump to a larger diameter hose.
• We rented a roofer's pump from Home Depot so we could drain the pond quickly and then move all the old pond water back in.  It was only $27 and it worked quickly and well.  Good deal.

Problem #5:

Get to it!

Our one remaining plant in the pool awaiting water (the rest were thrown out by the "professional" pond cleaner, without him even asking if I wanted them).  Blowing up this pool was quite a chore, taking me a solid half an hour with the bicycle pump.   There's got to be a better way to do it.

Jeff testing the rented roofer's pump in some water.

Pond liner layed out 15' x 20'.  Be careful with this--it was very sunny that day and our grass turned brown where the liner was laying, the liner gets extremely hot in the sun!

Filling up the kiddie pool with pond water.  I used the old, tiny pump in the kiddie pool to give the fish some aeration.

Chappie helping (he's the little white speck near the wagon!).

Kiddie pool full with the fish and mesh on top for safety.  We left the fish in the kiddie pond overnight and they were totally fine.

Jeff checking on the roofer's pump when it was getting to the bottom.

We got the old liner out, which was INCREDIBLY gross, and here is the hole!  All I could say when I saw all of the roots and the rocks was THANK GOD I spent the extra money on underlayment!  The old pond had some weird carpet under part of the liner, and a few places where they put two pieces of liner.  Obviously that didn't work out.  I'm hoping the underlayment keeps the liner intact for a looong time.

We deepened the deep part another half a foot or so to give the fish some more space (protection for the winter and coolness for the summer), and also dug out some space for the waterfall.  Here I am trying to take the wrinkles out of the liner.  Boy is that frustrating and hard.  I read in one place that you should "pleat" the corners, which I tried to do.

This was my first attempt at a pre-filter for the pump.  In the end I took out all of the extraneous middle filters, tied it all together with nylon rope, and tied another piece of nylon rope to the pump handle so we can pull it out of the pond more easily.

Jeff leveling the waterfall filter.  We didn't attach the liner to the faceplate of the waterfall filter, not seeing a need for it.  It's not "set in stone", though, so maybe I will do it before we put the rocks out.

The pump is on the left in the deep end and the hose runs on the outside of the pond to the waterfall filter.  We put all of the old pond water back into the pond because I was worried about not having enough of the good bacteria for the fish.  It turned out to only be about 200 gallons, so most of the water was new, anyway.  We put the new water in first along with the chlorine remover.

That's a lot of liner to cover up!

The fish loved all of the new room!

 

The kiddie pool was really gross once the fish and pond water was out.

Close up of waterfall filter.

We still have a lot of work to do.  I want to put paving stones around the pond, instead of the mish mash of small, bumpy rocks that were there.  I want to be able to walk around the pond and sit by it, instead of having a barricade of stupid round rocks!  The horrible Yucca plants don't help, either.  They're either in your way or spearing you with their old stalks.

And that's it.  It's been a few days and the pond seems to be doing fine so far.  It will be nice to get the liner and underlayment covered and the waterfall filter more finalized.

What I Did On Tuesday-- Compost and Garbage

Tuesday was a busy day.  I built a compost pile, threw out all of the flooring I had piled up outside since February (among other things), and pretty much exhausted myself. 

Flooring pile since Feburary...

Yay all gone!  We got some nice new weeds, though.  And boy do we have a lot of slugs.  And centipedes.  And spiders.  And little grey rolly bug things.  And one super cute little muffin snail that I wanted to pick up and kiss!

Everything barely fit in this little 4 yard dumpster, including the old pond liner and carpet, but it did indeed fit!  And it only cost $80 from the city, which included drop off and pick up!  Great deal!

My very basic little garden with the compost pile to the left.  There was a huge piece of black plastic underneath all the old mulch, which I removed with some effort.  The former owners were very smart to put down the plastic because this is weed heaven around here!  In particular, there is an infestation of a crazy creeping bush that is trying to destroy our fence and popping up everywhere.

The compost pile-- it looks a bit more impressive in person!  I made a very basic and entirely moveable border of bricks (our property is infested with lovely old bricks) and used some old lattice at the back instead of throwing it away.

If the compost pile works out I definitely need to level the ground and build the walls higher (it would be so much fun to use mortar, I think!) but for now I will just avoid knocking them over.

The property hadn't been raked for at least a year, so the piles of leaves were already composting on their own.  These leaves are just from one small area on the outside of the fence along the alleyway.  I put some branches on the bottom 'for drainage' and some greens in the middle then wet everything.  Today I added some kitchen scraps.  I hope it works, and fast!

Uncovering an Old Brick Chimney--Dusty!

One more chapter in the ongoing saga of our little old house: uncovering the old brick chimneys!  I woke up a few days ago thinking about the circular bulge and cracking, peeling bump-out wall in the kitchen, figuring it *must* be an old chimney and that the circular part is where a stove used to hook up.  So I started tearing away!

Yes, there is a beautiful brick chimney under that bump out!  At least... I think so.

Scary stuff.  I thought the whole thing was covered with concrete, at first, and was getting worried.

After digging a little deeper I saw a hint of orange and then---hurray!  There's the brick! 
It turned out the "concrete" was just plaster!

Horse hair plaster--- at least, I hope that's horse hair.  And hair from happy, living horses.. 
Why in the name of god is the hair red?

I had to stop after awhile, it was creating too much of a mess and was getting more difficult the further I got away from the vent (there wasn't anymore cracking to make it easy!).  As usual, I wasn't using the right tools and hadn't really protected the floor.  Taking plaster down is SUCH an incredible mess.  Proceed with caution.

It looks like the painted over wallpaper is going to come off pretty easily, which is exciting since it's peeling and bulging and all kinds of badness.

And I wanted to show our awesome kitty litter container which is a vintage barrel that used to hold breakfast blend tea!  My favorite!

I am preparing myself to take the rest of the plaster off the chimney and to peel the rest of the wallpaper off the walls.  It's going to be QUITE the chore, especially since our contractor completely botched the wall that has the sink.  You can't really see it in this picture, but his attempt at blending the new drywall with the old plaster was a complete failure.  The wall actually bulges all the way across.  There are already cracks down the new drywall, and he left big patches of exposed plaster.  We're going to have to have a professional take down the shelves and fix the walls, unfortunately, before we can paint.

Botched drywall job.  If you can't blend new drywall with old plaster, just tell the homeowner and have them decide what to do instead of just trying to hide it with drywall compound.

The only good thing about this is that perhaps at the same time we can have that wall to the right of the sink taken out and an arch put in, like we originally wanted.  That way the butler pantry will be incorporated into the kitchen, which would be nice since it is our main source of storage!

The kitchen before we started working on it.  The cabinets have been moved to the bird room.  We want the arch to go from the edge of the new stainless table/counter to the new stove.  You can see the butler pantry a bit through the doorway.

I wonder how that kind of in depth construction will work with our animals...  Guess we'd just have to lock all the cats in the bedroom and seal off the bird room with plastic!

Easy Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Easy Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

The best!

I have a few recipes that I use all of the time, and this banana muffin recipe is one of them. It comes from this simple little cookbook called "The Peaceful Palate" which I bought from The Vegetarian Resource Group (but it doesn't seem to available from there anymore?).

This is the first time I added chocolate chips to this recipe--usually I use flax seeds.  Ohhh the chips make it quite nice!

Here is the recipe, I hope you try it!  I have had success every time I've made this and I know you will, too!

Easy Vegan Banana Muffins
Makes 12

2 cups unbleached white or whole wheat pastry flour (I usually use half of each, but have also used all whole wheat and they came out great)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar or other sweetener (I use about 3/4 cup turbinado sugar)
1/3 cup oil

4 ripe bananas, mashed--about 2.5 cups (make sure they are really really ripe!)
1/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
Mix-ins!  The recipe suggests 1 cup chopped walnuts, but I have used only flax seeds and chocolate chips in varying amounts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt together.

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and oil together, then add the bananas and mash them (I use a potato masher, super easy!).  [It's very important to do this exactly in that order!  I messed up the order once and it didn't come out as well :/ ] Stir in the water and vanilla and mix thoroughly.  Add the flour mixture, along with your mix-ins, and stir to mix.  Pour into your muffin pan (I use a silicone muffin pan and it makes 12 medium-large muffins) and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes until a toothpick (or knife, if you're like me) comes out clean [bake time depends on what kind of pan you use and on your oven--keep an eye on the muffins the first time you make them].

And you're done!  I hope you love them!

Santhara

Live and Let Live

The first time I heard about Santhara was just a few months ago.  I was amazed, reading about it.  Here is the proof, I thought, that humans can truly be selfless.  I came back to it again, tonight, looking for some kind of solace after an uncomfortable and unhappy weekend dotted with stories and pictures of animal abuse (oh, Facebook, when will I learn not to look).  However, the more I read about Santhara, particularly the controversy over Santhara/suicide/(human) euthanasia/Sati, the more confused and unhappy I'm becoming.

My first impression--as an ignorant and rootless Westerner who wants to believe that compassion is most important above all else, and who is looking for any and all evidence to support this--was that Santhara is a beautiful choice for a person to make to avoid participating in killing.  Of course, their bodies would still be killing bacteria and things, I would assume, until the end but at least the person would be doing everything they consciously can to avoid killing.  The fact that Santhara continues to exist, with approximately 200 or so people practicing it every year, gave me hope for humanity.

When I looked closer and "reality" entered, things became messy and ruined my fantasy of Santhara as the ultimate act of compassion practiced by people who only care about not causing harm.

Reality:  the possibility that people of a certain age, gender, and/or health status may be pressured by their family and community into starving themselves to death (and pressured to not stop doing it, even if the person truly wants to).

Reality:  practitioners may be primarily concerned with and pursuing ideas about karma and "soul cleansing" instead of actual feelings of compassion and love.

Reality:  Digambara Jains represent just another stupid sexist religion that declares women as inherently inferior, ie can't attain "liberation" unless they are reincarnated as a man.  (Svetambara Jains do not believe this, fortunately.)

Perhaps I should turn away from all of this "reality" and go back to my beautiful and perhaps ignorant Western fantasy of Santhara and compassion.  

When In Doubt, Hold Your Contractors Hand

I got to our house today late in the afternoon, to check in with our contractor who was supposed to be finishing up installing everything, mainly the bathroom fixtures.

Jeff and I told him (...multiple times... by email and over the phone) that his only priority today was to have the tub installed because tomorrow morning we have a guy coming to resurface the inside of the tub (which is pretty worn and gross).

Sidenote: We have already rescheduled THREE times with the tub resurfacer and we have had to put our move off by two weeks (meaning paying more rent) because of issues with our contractor's delays.

When I got to the house, the first thing I see is the tub laying on its side in the living room and our contractor's assistant puttering around doing god knows what as usual. I ask him what's up with the tub and he says something about a problem with the length of the pipes, and then says "Wait until you see the sink".

I wish I had my camera. The one time I decide not to bring it I miss out on taking a picture of a bathroom sink installed FIVE FEET up a wall.

I don't know if it was exactly 5' but the rim of the sink came to just above my elbow, and I'm 6' tall. The plumbing going up to the sink was freakishly elongated and wavy. It was like walking into bizarro world.

Insert extremely uncomfortable exchanges with contractor, here. I wanted to scream at them to get the hell out of our house and never come back, but thanks to Jeff talking with him on the phone from Boston, it's more or less worked out. Basically..

The shit part is that when the sink is lowered to a sane height, you'll be able to see the holes and ballpoint pen lines the contractor stupidly put in the wall--on the vintage wallpaper I killed myself to hang. I'm hoping we'll be able to cover it with one of our mirrors, if it's long enough.

As for the tub? It *might* be ready for the refinisher tomorrow, but I'm not counting on it.

More importantly, when in doubt... hold your contractor's hand. If you think he understands how high you want the sink, or how low you want the pendant lights (grrr that was a few weeks ago), make sure you're there for the installation, just in case.

Thoughts on Eating Animals

Thankfulness is a wonderful practice and perhaps would help alleviate some problems in the world if people were moment to moment mindful and thankful of life.

However, this has been bothering me---the idea that it's fine to eat animals, etc., as long as you are "thankful" for the "food" (or other).

Their life, for your life.

"Thank you for giving your life so that I may live."

My immediate internal objection to this was that animal bodies (and parts, products) are not needed for human life.  The statement should instead say "Thank you for giving your life so that I may eat food that I prefer" or "Thank you for giving your life so that I can wear these shoes I wanted to buy" or "Thank you for giving your life so I can do experiments on you for knowledge that is unnecessary and inapplicable to humans".

It took a few days of not quite conscious thinking to come to a deeper understanding of what was bothering me about that statement.

Was it the thankfulness part, itself?  No, of course not.  

Thankfulness is good.

Then it came to me.  Thanking an animal for "giving" its life to you is like thanking a person you raped for "giving" you sex.

"Oh thank you so much, I really needed that."

Animals are not giving their bodies to us for our use. We are taking them and abusing them before ripping them apart.  And most people don't even have to deal with the messy part of all that, they have someone else do it for them.

Don't try to justify this with "thankfulness".


 

*

**

 

*this photo is from here

**this photo is from here

the rest of the photos were taken by me and my husband at Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in New York