I left instructions with “Daddies Little Angel TM ” about which areas of shingle to scoop up. I had major plans for the day, and moving the shingle alone would take a couple of hours. It would be so much easier if I could come home and find that bit done. I was amazed to get a phone call at mid day to say she’d shifted it, and would I fetch home some McDinner. (You can see what she did below) Once McDinner was scoffed, I took over in the garden. I dug up the electrical cable at the end of the garden, and arranged it so it came out of the ground about ten feet closer to the house. I then laid the slab for the new shed and got it level. Well.. I say “level”. The spirit level wasn’t quite as central as it might have been, but what’s a garden without a bit of “rustic charm TM ”. After re-shingling (which took some doing, I then made a hole in the back of the new shed and poked the leccie cables through. And then re-plumbed all the cabling into a Koi-specific junction box. A Koi-specific junction box is much the same as any other junction box apart from two major differences. Firstly you buy it from the Koi shop, and secondly it’s about ten times the price of a normal one. Then I painted up the fence where the old leccie boxes were. Whilst I was at it I’ve taken the light out of the pond. This is the second one that’s packed up after a couple of weeks. I’m not going to bother with any more. They aren’t cheap, and there’s plenty of other pond-related tat to waste my money on. Whilst I was at it I’ve installed the new “high-tech blanket weed deterrent TM “. Blanket weed is the horrible stringy green stuff that we sometimes get. In the past we’ve used dangerous chemicals to get shot of the stuff, but the chemicals aren’t cheap, and I’m not keen on chucking that sort of stuff in with the fish. The nice man in the shop says that the “high-tech blanket weed deterrent TM “ will sort out my problems. The gadget comes with a cable that I wrapped round the water inflow to the filter box. This cable (allegedly) zaps the water going to the filter with pulses of radio waves and so by the wonders of science this prevents blanket weed formation. The thing cost thirty quid, but then the dangerous chemicals are twenty quid a go. I’m hoping it will be a saving in the long run. I’m not sure if I believe the thing will work, but then again, I don’t believe in dousing, even though I can do it. I suppose it works on the principle that because I listen to Radio Four in my car, and the car doesn’t have blanket weed, it must be true. Time will tell – it usually does.
It’s amazing how long it takes to just fiddle about with a few wires. Before I knew where the day had gone it was 6pm. The pond does look better without the mess of wires behind it. I’m not sure if it was worth the £150 I spent to get rid of the mess of wires. If nothing else, it will make switching off the filter that much easier the next time it’s clogged with fish poo.
At first sight it doesn’t actually look very different. When “My Boy TM ” came home I thought I’d see if he could spot the difference. He did, but then he knew what I’d been planning. He’d been fishing, and had had some whoppers. Mind you, he’d been gone for over a day and had only had six fish. Now if we are just going on numbers alone, I would have had that many in less than five minutes.
And then – disaster. “My Boy TM ” announced that none of the leccie sockets in his attic room were working. I very nearly cried when I heard that. I really hoped all the problems with the attic were behind us. I went up and had a look. The lights were working, but none of the sockets were. I eventually remembered where we’d installed the spur, so I pulled the mains and had a look. I couldn’t see anything amiss, but when I powered up again, the power was restored again. I’m hoping that this is a one-off, but I shall be worrying about this for weeks, now…
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