Fixing the playground

[Mikey]

Well the raccoons have been at it again overturning every rock or stone they can move. In doing so they undermined the liner in the stream area causing about a 1 foot loss of water over night. Fortunately the fetching one noticed and brought it to my attention.  I turned off the pump and added water for the next two days to bring it back near its normal level.

I used some Great Stuff to glue a few rocks in place when I built the pond 11 years ago and it is still holding them to the liner.  I didn't have raccoons then so there was no need to glue rocks along the edges of my mini stream in place. 
So far I have emptied 3 cans of Great Stuff in the stream area of their playground. I don't think those rocks on the side will be going anywhere next time the stooges come to play.... That stuff really expands so I will have to consider getting some spray paint for those areas where the foam shows.....which is just about everywhere.

Tomorrow I may lower the pond level and also "glue" some of the edging rocks to the liner in the main pond where they also were displaced.  Today I fished several off of the plant shelf where the raccoons had relocated them. I'm sure others are on the bottom......where they will have to remain until spring when the water is warmer..... No sense in freezing certain body parts.... Fortunately I have sweet flag growing along most of the pond edges and the roots from this plant stick to the liner and rocks real good and hold the rocks in place. It would take a king-kong raccoon to move those rocks.

I'd rather be fishing....

[Jerry]

A tough way to spend your day!  But they are so cute! (sarcasam)
Mike, I got coffee grounds this morning from Starbucks, thanks for the suggestion!

[Argos5]

Raccoons, egrets...build it and they will come.

[miguynmkoi]

Nothing better than an unexpected chore caused by uninvited visitors.    So I guess we don't get new pics of you in the water 

I've had a flurry of traffic by opossums and raccoons lately also, tripping everything including the water pipes from the filter box to the pond.  I too lost water, about 5" worth, from a slightly ajar pipe connection that should have been glued.     I'm definitely going to get dinged big time by the water co. this month 

Then I discovered a dead opossum under my orange tree on the side garden, egads!  It was the smell that let me discover it.  IT was the size of a big cat and probably about a day or so rotting there by my dining room window, phee-yooooo! 

[Mikey]

You should have some nicely fertilized oranges come spring.... 

This photo below is of the upper area where my mini stream is located and where the raccoons pulled down all the stones into a little mini-pond beneath it.  These were smaller rocks and easy to move around.  They are now all "foamed" into place.  I sprayed some faux stone paint on it to try to make the foam blend in.


I have sweet flag growing on the coping rocks and liner for most of the pond and the raccoons were not able to budge those rocks:


But in areas without sweetflag holding down the rocks the raccoons pushed/pulled them into the pond necessitating me to glue them down.  I haven't painted the foam on these yet. 

[Kittyzee]

That looks like a lot of work Mikey--I hate rock work--it's such clumsey work trying not to slip, bent over lugging heavy rocks around.  The spray on the foam looks really good:  it's hard to tell that it's there.   

[MikeW]

"I'd rather be fishing"

That's what the raccoons say too!

Mike

[Mikey]

More bad news for me today.    I was working near the bridge today and upon peering beneath the bridge I saw where the raccoon(s) had chewed out a section of liner leaving a 1-2" wide opening....      I'm not certain if this hole was another reason why I was losing water or if they chewed the hole after I shut off the pump.  The area where the hole is a small section of stream where the water returns to the pond, meaning that if they chewed the hole when the pump was running they would have gotten a snout full of water.  Very frustrating....  To make repairs I will have to remove the bridge and get some patching material to seal the hole....

The good news is the weather is cool and the fish don't need the water being circulated for oxygenation.

Will someone remind me why I built this pond?

[OldMarine]

Hi Mikey,

Where did you get the 'faux stone' paint? Is that a brand name or the type of paint? I would like to get some. Your faux stone paint touch looks really impressive.

I have a large plastic fake stone that covers my skimmer/pre-filter reservor that looked really fake. So I spray  painted with this stuff on the rock that spattered on like paper (sp) mashae. Then I had to spray a clear flat lacquer coat over it to seal it and keep it from washing off in the rain.

Happy ponding,

[Mikey]

Home Depot had two colors of faux stone paint.  One color was too dark.  I next went to an artist supply business and they had a can of granite faux stone paint.  I used a combination of both.  Exposure to the sun will eventually do the rest.  The stuff that gets covered with water will soon turn greenish brown.

[Mikey]

I removed the bridge where it goes over the stream in order to begin repairs on the hole.  It is a little larger than I first realized:

[CT]

Walmart has it too if you don't need huge amounts. It's in a spray can and called Fleck Stone. Several colors. I used the gray on an inside aquarium stand and it turned out great.
Kay

[Julles]

Why on earth would a 'coon chew RUBBER?!  Sorry about all the hassle, Mikey. 

Great Stuff - Esther will love it!!    The spray paint was a good idea.  I had to use some Great Stuff around landscape block work after the hurricane, and some paint would sure help it look more natural. 

[Jonna]

The Fleck Stone spray looks pretty good.  I once used it to cover an avocado green refrigerator in a rental unit, the frig still worked but it was really ugly.  Stayed on for years, occasionally it would wear thin or chip so I patched it a couple times between renters.  I don't think you can use it under water though, I seem to remember that if it got too wet it got soggy and came off.

[emm]

Your faux rock looks good but that's a real shame about the liner.  Looks like it's in a crucial spot too.  Sure hope you can get a good seal on the patch.

emm

[Mikey]

Thanks Kay for the tip.  I'll have to check it out.

Yesterday I cut off a section of spare EPDM liner to put inside the hole so that my patch would have something to grab a hold of where the hole is located.  First I squirted some Great Stuff in the hole to fill the void to hold the spare EPDM in place and also make a stable platform for my patch.  I also put some of the foam between my spare piece of rubber and the liner hoping it would act like a patch from the bottom.  I then wiped off the excess foam and placed some plastic wrap over the hole and then placed a board on top of the plastic wrap and then weighed it down with a rock so that my patch area would still be relatively flat.  This morning when I removed the board and the plastic wrap I was very pleased.  The spare EPDM was well fastened to the bottom of my liner making a complete seal.  Here is what it looked like after I applied the solvent required for the patch.


I put on my reading glasses while cleaning the area and I noticed two other pin-hole puncture marks to the left of the hole.  I also put patching material over them.


It appears to me the patch sealed quite nicely.  Next I plan to use more Great Stuff to attach small flat river stones over this entire section of liner.  Let the little buggers chew on stone!