Then, The Wind Hit


Smashed pots are standard for Wind Events

Monday was a heck of a day.  It was our first "Wind Event" of the autumn with sustained winds to 50 mph, gusts to 60, and humidity in the single digits.  Not extreme for a wind event, but bad enough.  What was extreme was the fire danger, despite the wonderful rain we got just two days before.  8% humidity dries everything out really quick.  
It used to look like this, however...
...while I was enjoying a cup of morning coffee there was a loud crash just outside.  The koi pond shower, host to the enormous volunteer sword fern, had been pushed off its wall by the wind.  Perhaps the fern had acted as a sail, increasing the power of the wind.  
I jump into action to see if the broken pipe was broken in such a way as to let all the water run out of the pond.  (Very Bad for fish.)  The break in the pipe was high enough;  no leak.  Whew!  
The pond has two separate filtration circuits.  The first circuit starts with the pond's bottom drain, which feeds a sieve that strains out leaves and other waste.  The sieve passes the water to a pump, the pump to a bead filter which removes tiny particulate matter from the water, the bead filter to a UV clarifier which kills bacteria.  The UV clarifier then returns the cleaner water to side intakes back in the pond.   

The second circuit starts with a surface skimmer taking in water from the surface of the pond.  The skimmer runs to a pump, the pump to another bead filter, then the water returns to the pond via a shower filter, which sprays water over volcanic stone to thoroughly aerate the water.  It was the shower filter that hosted the giant fern.  

The point of having two circuits is that if one has a problem, there is another still operating to maintain water quality for the koi.   "Wow!", I thought, "Two filtration circuits was a great idea!"  

Then, the power went out.  No power, no filtration.  The power was out in the neighborhood from 9:35 am Monday to somewhere around 3:00am Tuesday.  I spent the electricity-free day hacking some of the giant fern out of the shower filter.  The whole thing is packed solid with tough, wiry roots. 
 When it got dark, I sat in the dark and looked out the window.  There was just enough moonlight to see trees dancing in the wind.  Early to bed.  Around 4:00 am we woke up to--lights.  Hooray!  I checked the pond;  the koi were okay, not overly happy, but also not dead.  

Tuesday consisted of cleaning up leaf and branch litter whipped in by the wind, and doing a makeshift temporary repair on pond filtration circuit #2.  It may take days to claw the root mass out of the shower box.  Once it is cleared out, the pipe and shower bar can be re-run into the top of the shower box.
Little Les there on the far left
  The long horizontal pipe is drilled full of small holes so that the water is aerated as it goes back into the pond.  

This was not fun work.  It involves struggling to saw pipe, kneeling in mud, multiple trips to the hardware store.  Happy and deeply grateful to be there to do it, though.  Just a few miles from here a young woman pulling out her car to go to work was crushed to death by a falling Eucalyptus.  A mess in the garden is nothing, nothing at all.   

Update:  this morning the local electric power corporation came and topped the big Euc on the property behind ours.
Before:
After.  No chance of the top snapping off and crushing something--or someone. 
 Of course the tree is going to re-sprout lavishly and push growth back into the nearby power line, but at least not right away.  People think its a good idea to plant a tree right next to a power pole to hide the power pole, but when the tree starts slapping the power line in high winds, sparks fly and can ignite.  
Happy koi again 

Comments

  1. That puts our recent wind event into perspective.
    But I'm glad to see you are honing your plumbing skills. Might be needed in the weeks to come.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Our designer is on vacation for 10 days. Not as long as your tile guy, but there is a delay now.

      Delete
  2. Oh no!!! It was dry (still is) and windy here but we had nothing like that. I'm glad you were there to take care of it and that the koi are okay. I hadn't heard the sad news of a wind-related death.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Thanks, Kris. More wind tomorrow, apparently. :^(

      Delete
  3. What a "wind event". We get a lot of wind here, but nothing that dramatic. Glad the fish are okay.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Rebecca. They are eating again, which means they are happy again.

      Delete
  4. We missed the rain, wind and power outage as we were away. I'm glad no one was hurt when the shower toppled over. Our trendy museum palo verde tipped over and a lovely neighbor righted and tethered it for us us until we can properly stake it. I wish we could get rid of more of the eucs, no life is worth losing for a mature tree. We can re-plant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry you missed the wonderful rain, but at least you missed the roaring wind. Lovely neighbor indeed to tether your tree!

      When the big Euc got cut down next door last year I was so very, very happy. Today SCE's tree trimmers came out and topped another big Euc next door, another cause for happiness, though seeing it cut down completely would be a dream come true.

      Delete
    2. My goodness. I can't imagine dealing with winds that strong. I am glad you didn't have any more damage or worse. Keep those trees trimmed. People around here go on their merry way planting big trees by power lines. Drives me crazy to see that. Awww, your sweet koi. They look like they are waiting for a handout. Do they have names? I am glad to hear they are ok.

      Delete
    3. Planting big trees by power lines drives me crazy, too. I selected trees that stay smaller, like Lagerstroemias; the native oak could get big eventually, but they hold up to wind and are not the danger in wildfires like Eucalyptus are. Also no power lines near. All developments in our county after about 1995 must have buried power lines, which ours does.

      Koi were waiting for food. They are sweet! From right to left, Les, More, and Rita Hayworth. The other two not in the photo are Hana which means "flower" in Japanese, and Princess Yuki.

      Delete
  5. Well damn, that could have been a whole lot worse for you and the fish, glad it wasn’t. Sorry to hear someone else did suffer though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Could have been much worse. We're all hoping it is not a bad fire season.

      Delete
  6. We had a creepy wind event a couple of weeks ago, and PG and E cut power to the most fire prone areas-they are under pressure since downed power lines were the main factor in the fires of last October. Some rain would help.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad it did not start another terrible fire in your area, anyway. That new policy of shutting off the power during wind events is PG&E getting back at the state for daring to blame them for starting fires. Tit for tat. I so want to enlarge our photovoltaic system and add storage, but our roof is stupid and there is no straightforward way to expand the system. Bought the house with the wrong roof.

      Oh, doesn't rain always help? Here it does, probably not so much up north.

      Delete
    2. The wrong roof - that is frustrating. We are still deliberating about PVs.

      Delete
  7. Whoa - that must have been some wind gust.... so glad you had better luck than that poor woman who got crushed... Sudden intensity in just about everything weather related seems to be the way of the future. I was just driving through the standard Portland overhead jungle of wires and cables, thinking how much worse all storms become just because of those. I think we need a huge big national infrastructure project which aims to bury all of those. And, while we're down there digging, we might up well shore up aging sewers too. A girl can dream, right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like a great dream to me. Money spent on infrastructure is an investment. The word for it is "civilization". Civilization seems to be crumbling here before our eyes. "Civic pride" is another vanishing concept. The US used to believe in that. :(

      The new developments here must all have buried power lines. Far better. Although I think it is not possible in those areas with floods and/or high water tables.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Always interested in your thoughts.

Any comments containing a link to a commercial site with the intent to promote that site will be deleted. Thank you for your understanding on this matter.