Spitters

These are spitters.  Spitters are statues that are plumbed to allow water to be pumped through them.  Thousands of kinds of spitters are made, from little boys peeing to little girls with umbrellas or huge bronze birds or dolphins costing thousands of dollars.  

One of my crane spitters' neck is broken. That may or may not have been an accident

I have these two little cranes because some client didn't want them anymore, so gave them to me. Notice they are NOT hooked up to a pump with water spitting out of their beaks.  In fact, they are not in the water.  They live on the banks of the pond and will never been seen with water shooting out of their beaks unless it's raining hard.

You ask why?  If you have spitters, you don't have to ask. You already learned why.

You see, it all starts with the spitters looking all cute sitting on the side of the pond or even in the water.  Water is shooting out of the intended orifice and all is well. 

As time passes, and not all that much time, the pump picks up some pond debris and water is now slowing down.  It's now drooling out and down the spitter's body.  Two things happen when the drool begins.  Water does not return to the pond and drools out.  And the spitter is wet where the water drools and soon turns black with algae.  Both things are disasters. 

If the spitter is in the water, the pump is grinding away uselessly working its hardest to burn up because it's clogged up with pond debris. And it will burn up, trust me. 

If the spitter is next to the pond, the spitter is drooling water out of the pond, albeit slowly.  It only takes overnight or so to totally drain the pond. There is no such thing as a little leak.

My advice:  Stay away from spitters. Or get them and use them as an ornament, never letting their tails, feet or anything else get hooked up to a pump.   They will make your hair grey.

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Leaky liners

I know we have talked about liner leaks before, but the question keeps getting asked: How do I fix my leaking pond?

First of all, your pond is probably not leaking. I always tell people that when they call to tell me their pond is leaking.

"Hi Jan, my pond is leaking."

"No, it probably isn't."

"But it is losing water every day and anyway how can you know that if you haven't seen it?"

"I have seen thousands of ponds and am all knowing.  Chances are about 99% your liner has no hole in it. Let's troubleshoot.  If I have to come over there, you will need to get out your checkbook, so if we can do this over the phone, my advice is free.  Which do you prefer?"

"Over the phone."

"OK, turn off your pump, fill up your pond and let it sit over night.  If the water stays put, your water is falling behind the waterfall.  If you have a spitter, the water is drooling down the spitter and out of the pond. Check your waterfall rocks. Chances are one of them has tipped and water is not going back in the pond, but falling off the back.  Look at the water level in the morning and call me back."

I usually get no call back.  The pond owner has learned something.  Liners rarely leak. They rarely get holes in them unless raccoons have been marauding through the water in search of tasty morsels.

The pond owner finds the wayward rock, tips it back into place and all is well.

Pond Spitters

Isn't spitter an awful name for a statue that has water pumped through it? Frankly, I am not a spitter fan, although there are some fine pieces of statuary out there that I do love.
One thing spitters do in our time of water crises is cut down on evaporation and therefore use less water. The folks who are supposed to know such things say that in 6 more years, we will not have enough potable water to sustain our evergrowing population, so we must change our habits.
One of the ways to conserve water is to build a rain garden.