Building a wildlife pond - Part 1

Last year we built ourselves a garden pond.  We’d talked about it for a year or two and finally bit the bullet and gave it a go.  Although I’m no expert I think it’s worth sharing my experience and hope it helps you if you’re planning your own hole in the ground.

We wanted a wildlife pond, something to attract insects and frogs.  Apparently ponds support a greater diversity of life than any other garden habitat, and are one of the best ways to attract a range of wildlife. As well as creatures and plants living in the pond, mammals and birds will come to drink or bathe.  Sounds fun.

First off then is a list and a little planning, (Failure to plan is a plan to fail and all that).  The list also helps break the jobs into sizable, do-able chucks.  Most of the text below is a mixture of information I have gathered from various websites.

1. Decide on the site, shape and depth of the pond. 
2. Clear the top surface area of the pond from gravel, turf, grass etc and either reuse in other parts of the garden or keep to one side for any finishing touches.
3. Before you dig know where the excavated soil is going to go.
4. Dig the pond site to your planned shape and depth.
5. Measure the deep end to make sure you are down far enough.
6. Clear the hole of any stones, roots, sharp edges and loose dirt.
7. Line the hole with a layer of soft building sand
8. Line the sanded hole with underlay material.
9. Position the liner over the hole.
10. Start filling the pond liner.
11. Trim off excess liner when the pond is full.
12. Lay your edging material.
13. Stock the pond with oxygenating plants.

The pond before it was a Pond, 29 June 2010. This space is just crying out to be used. (Cam C902)

April is a good month to dig out a new pond as it gives you the rest of summer for it to get established, so let’s get started.

1. Decide on the site, shape and depth of the pond. 

The ideal pond site is in a sunny spot, sheltered from cold northerly winds and well away from trees that shed their leaves. Too much shade will encourage algal growth, while falling leaves will soon clog up the pond in autumn.

The simplest way of establishing the shape and size you want is to lay garden hose or rope out on the pond site, and to view it from various positions. A healthy pond needs to be in full sun for as may hours as possible every day. Plenty of sunshine will warm the water and encourage plant growth. Plants with floating leaves will give some shade to pond dwellers.

Think of pond maintenance, ease of access, will make this job much easier.

Allow for an overspill, ideally into a marshy area or a soak away. You don’t want excess water draining into a neighbour’s garden.

No pond is too small to be useful but if possible, aim for a minimum of 4 to 5 square meters surface area. This will allow frog or newts to breed, as well as some dragonfly species.

Shape is not critical, but is probably best kept simple. An informal curved shape will look good for a wildlife pond.

Depth profile is important. The deepest point should be at least 75cm, this will allow hibernating amphibians and invertebrates to survive the coldest winters when the pond is frozen over.

There should be a shelf about 20 to 30 cm deep to place emergent plants on. Finally, there should be a gently sloping shallow area; this can be used by bathing birds, and as it will warm up quickly in sunny weather will be occupied by many invertebrates.

You can find Part 2 here  

You can find Part 3 here  

You can find Part 4 here

Fiat Sedici. How to set display to miles per gallon (MPG)

When I bought my 1.9 Diesel Sedici the fuel economy was set at ltrs per 100km and I just couldn't get used to it. Tthe instruction in the manual didn’t work and it was driving me nuts. Anyway I found the solution on line so I thought I share it in case someone else was stuck too.

• Turn the ignition switch to the “ACC” or “ON” position while holding in the display button to the right of the fuel economy display.
• The display will blink.
• Push the display button in quickly to change the display from km to MPG
• Push the display button again for a blank display
• Push the display button again for km

Every push of the display button will continue to cycle through these 3 options.

Once you are on the desired display push the display button in and hold for more than 2 seconds, and the unit display will stop blinking and the display will stay on.

Done, hope that helps someone.

Sedici display showing MPG (Cam C902)

Baxi Duo-tec Combi Boiler E119 Low Pressure Fault

Although I’m going to talk about a low-pressure problem if you have the Baxi Duo-tec Combi Boiler then well done as it was voted Boiler of the Year (gotta love that title) 2008 at the CORGI Awards.  The award is voted for by the people who work with it on a daily basis.  The boiler was also awarded a 'Best Buy' by Which? in 2007 achieving the top score.

E119 low pressure fault
Let’s get to the recent fault and I hope this helps someone.  We have had this boiler for 3 years and very occasionally in the past it has lost pressure and switches itself off displaying an E119 fault on the display.  Reading the user instructions this was easily solved by re-pressurising the system and something you can do yourself.

This picture shows the display and pressure dial on the boiler.  (Cam: C902)

Recently though the E119 fault is occurring with more frequency.  The constant loss of pressure would indicate a leak somewhere in the system. The leak is either going to originate in the boiler or in the pipework and radiators.

First job then is to switch the thermostat down low so it will not call for heating.  Re-pressurise the boiler to 1.5 bar and then turn off the flow and return valves under boiler. This then creates a break between the boiler and the rest of the system and allows you to problem solve.  Leave it an hour or two…… A pressure drop on the dial indicates a leak in boiler.  No pressure drop indicates a leak from somewhere else, ie the pipework or radiators. 

Where is the flow and return valves?
Look under the boiler front at the pipes from the boiler, the 2 large ones 22mm will be flow and return to your CH system. The 3rd large one in the middlish is the gas pipe. Looking at my picture below you can see the valve on each pipe, turn these to a horizontal position to isolate the boiler.

The flow and return valves under my boiler.  (Cam C902)

In my case the pressure continued to drop indicating the leak was on the side of the boiler. I had laid some kitchen roll under the boiler to identify any drips.  From this I could the see the connector that was leaking and which required a quick tighten. Once I was happy that the leak was fixed the flow and return valves could be turned back on and the thermostat raised so the heating kicks in. I was lucky this was an easy fix.

If there is no pressure drop on the boiler dial then it’s time to check pipe joins, the radiator taps, bleed screws and any other joins where there could be a leak.  The signs of water seepage should be easy to detect with a finger or piece of kitchen roll.  Once the leak is detected you can take whatever remedial action is required.

Here is a bit of info from the manual.
E119 is displayed when the primary water pressure is less than 0.5 bar. After re-pressurising the system the boiler should operate.  The normal operating water pressure is between 1 and 2.0 bar. If the pressure exceeds 3 bar the safety pressure valve will operate and a fault is indicated.

Re-pressurising the system
It may be necessary to re-pressurise the system occasionally. A filling device (the filling loop) will be fitted on the system. This will be on the boiler itself, or on pipe work near to the boiler.  If you are unsure of its position, or cannot identify it, consult the installer who fitted the boiler.
The filling loop consists of two taps and a separate copper pipe with connection fittings. Only when re-pressurising should the copper pipe be connected between the two taps. (Note – I keep mine attached all the time).

Here’s the filling loop in situ  (Cam: C902)

Fully open the tap while watching the pressure gauge, when the needle on the gauge is indicating 1 or more turn off the tap.  Disconnect the copper pipe from the taps (Note – as I say I keep mine attached) and remove it. Keep the pipe in a safe place for future use.

Good luck if your in the same situation.

A word about frequent depressurizing.  If you find no leaks anywhere  my guess would be that your expansion vessel has lost pressure. The expansion vessel, or expansion tank, is the small tank used in closed hot water heating systems that helps to absorb water pressure. If it's lost it's 'charge' then as your water heats up the pressure builds and because the expansion vessel isn't doing its job then the PRV kicks in to protect the system and this will give a E119 fault. Theoretically you can recharge the expansion vessel yourself , but this is a job best left for an engineer.

Andy Pawlak In The Kitchen

Sometime in 1985 (after April) I bought a homemade demo tape titled 'In the Kitchen'.  The singer songwriter was a guy called Andy Pawlak.  I didn't even buy the tape off him, but off a friend of his.  The songs were recorded in his kitchen on the 4th April 1985 and I was hooked from the first listen, it was just him and his guitar. (And from the sound of it a shed load of talent and genius).

Here's a few pictures of the original tape.

'In the Kitchen' Front Cover (Cam K750i)

Inlay and Cassette (Cam K750i)

Inlay close up (Cam K750i)

I thought AP would make it big and would bang on about him to my mates.  In 1989 (give or take a year) he released a couple of singles and an LP called ‘Shoebox Full of Secrets’, which I bought.  He made at least one appearance on the TV, the program was Pebble Mill at One.

Anyway that ended up being that. I don't know how well the Album did, except no other album was produce and he just faded into obscurity.

Many years later when I was replacing my vinyl LP and tapes (converting from analogue to digital) I was confronted with AP again, all my other records were fairly mainstream and were easy to replace but ‘Shoebox Full of Secrets’ wasn't available.

 ‘Shoebox Full of Secrets’ Front Cover (Cam K750i)

Searching more deeply on the internet I found the album had been re-released in Japan and promptly ordered a copy, being even more happy that my Japanese copy was all printed in English.

All my vinyl and tapes are long gone, the only one tape I kept hold of was the homemade demo.  Over the years I've occasionally typed 'Andy Pawlak' into Google only to be met with a host of American University students, until now.

Andy Pawlak now exists on Myspace.

What a strange moment it was, I almost didn't believe this was him, but he was still doing music and it certainly sounded like him, good enough for me.  It transpires that a second album was recorded and finished but the record label was taken over before it's release, Andy Pawlak was dropped and the album was never released.

Scott Donaldson (a musical friend of AP’s) and Andy have re-recorded some of Andy’s old tracks from the second album and released them on iTunes under the name of Subdeluxe - Tales from the Monkey Shed. Find it here.   It is well worth a listen, how this guy never made it still surprises me.

Scott kindly offered to transfer the tape to CD so my collection is complete again.  It’s great to listen to the songs once more, can't believe that these songs are 22 years old.  Wow!  The song This our '85 is as relevant today as it was back then.

Visit Subdeluxe at Myspace here. Subdeluxe

Visit Andy Pawlak at Myspace here. Andy Pawlak

Visit Scott Donaldson at Myspace here. Scott Donaldson

Thanks

(For Reference - this blog first appeared on my ‘Myspace’ four years ago, it was my one and only blog).