I was called away on business for an extended period of time. Before I left I showed my daughter and wife how to operate the pond equipment. Starting and stopping the pump to clean out the leaf basket, weekly cleaning of the large bio filters, and general maintenance. It is not rocket science. Asking my daughter to clean the filters, to her, is equivalent to asking her to clean the restrooms at a rural highway gas station. However it seems the pump will not restart easily for my wife and a frog seems to be living in the spring check valve which causes the pump to have cavitation occasionally.
After an evening out at dinner, Mrs PJ came home to find the pump not working and was nearly in tears after several attempts to prime and restart. So of course it is my damn pond at this point so she calls me as I am walking back into the hotel after a very long day. Trouble shooting from 800 miles away requires a good working knowledge of every possible break point in the system. Instructions like turn this valve on, and this one off, and all the other things I would normally try is difficult to explain over the phone and only adds to her frustration. It didn’t help that she was using the smallest flashlight in the world, which of course died during the process. Turns out something was blocking the pipe near the bio filter and once that was cleared the water flowed.
I know the family loves the fish, but they are turning against the pond. Hopefully they won’t turn against me.
Note to self, install lighting for night time trouble.
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