Fixing the Pond

No, he's not in the pond. David is in the hole behind the retaining wall behind the pond. All the working parts for the pool--the "waterfall", the pump, the drain--were just bunged into a hole in the ground at the bottom of the steep hill that is part of our garden.

When it rained heavily in December, right after we moved in, the hill slid down into the pump, tilting it and bending the connection to the drain pipe so that eventually, when we turned it on, water leaked out and down the neighbor's driveway at the rate of 300 gallons/day..

We were ready to turn it into a planter, or a fishpond, but I thought it would look like a pool we had turned into a planter or a fishpond, i.e. not good. OilMan wanted to take it out entirely, since we aren't the type to sit on the side with our feet in the water and a glass of wine on the ledge, as the former owners reportedly did. David said that would cost a fortune.

It took months to figure out the source of the leak, and weeks to figure out how to get out the jammed part. I would frequently come home to find him sitting in the hole or lying prone on top of the wall with his head and shoulders down in the hole. He tried various wrenches. He made a tool to try and remove the part. He undoubtedly silently cursed the former contractor who buried the pump in a hole and covered it with a board. He thought about the problem at 3am....

Today I came home and found him with the pipe in his hand, and the offending seal (the round black ring) on the wall in front of him, looking like the cat that swallowed the canary. His only comment was, "now I can go home and shave". He claimed he had decided not to shave until he got the (non-sealing) seal off. I think he just decided that if he was going to have to sit in a hole in the rain, why bother?