January 18, 2009 - I have had fairly good luck with ice issues such as busted pipes and other damage caused by extreme cold weather. I do remember having the make-up water supply freezing one year when temps got down to zero.

The photo to the right (taken Jan 2, 2001), was the result of a very stupid mistake. This was the pond's first winter and first freeze. I was concerned about the pressure of the ice damaging the sides of the pond, so I decided to pump water from the lake to raise the ice up and hopefully take pressure off the sides. It worked, then I cut the pump used to add water off. The surface of the lake (refill pump was in the lake) was about 3 feet below the lowest point of the pond bottom. So, when I shut the pump off, water from the pond started siphoning to the lake. Of course I had no idea this was happening. Fortunately a small leak in the pipe near the ponds caused some air to be pulled into the pipe, otherwise the entire pond would have drained to the lake. The water level dropped about a foot and stopped. Now, unbeknownst to me, there was about a foot of air space between the new surface of the pond and the original surface ice sheet, which is of course self supporting. It eventually caved in, which is what you see in the photo above. It was several days before I realized this happened. I corrected the problem and was lucky that nothing was damaged.

 We recently had some really cold weather and I had a valve on the discharge piping of my pump freeze and bust. Again, unbeknownst to me, and with the surface of the pond frozen, water began leaking through the busted pipe. It dropped the level in the bottom pond about a foot before the pump lost suction. I don't know how many days the pump ran dry before I noticed a similar view of the pond as above. Once again the frozen surface collapsed under it's own weight. This Sequence™ brand pump has been running since March 2002! This is obviously an external pump, and it has survived being flooded in it's vault at least two or three times. And now, it has survived running dry for at least several hours, if not several days. I was told by the dealer to expect this pump to last at least 8 - 10 years. Well, it's almost been eight and this pump has been through some abuse. No doubt about it, my next pump will be a Sequence. Yes, it is an expensive pump, but it pays for itself in electrical usage alone. The pump barely pulls an amp, which is far better than most cheap submergible pumps which could spew out oil like the Exxon Valdez.

I did lose one of my bigger Koi this Winter. The fish I called "Miracle Koi" died, it had been in my pond since June 2002.

The swing by the bottom pond has weathered beyond usefulness. Thinking about replacing it with something a little more permanent. I could just replace it with a bench, but I would rather have the swing. It's a very relaxing place to watch the fish, the waterwheel, listen to the water and frogs, and even surf the internet via laptop.

January 20, 2009 - Another small catastrophe. Fortunately, I was watching my pond cam this morning and noticed something strange. Water level dropping again. The first photo (upper left) at 6:59 am shows no problems at all. The second photo (upper right) at 7:01 am shows a drop in water level. The next two photos show the level continuing to drop until pump loses suction.

What happened this time? The rubber coupling on the discharge pipe from the pump came lose due to strain that I caused during the repair two days ago. So this was an easy and quick fix, and again, it was raining.