Working Disorder

I think if the Moose were born or growing up now, he would have been diagnosed with some disorder for someone who can't seem to get or come up with enough work.  You see, it was 5 a.m. this morning, and any other normal person would have been sleeping in after the work we did at the Compound on Saturday.  Not him, he's up, walked the dog and came back in and spent about 15 minutes trying to solve a problem we've been putting off at the Compound with the pond.  Since he came up with a solution, our day was planned. We would have been out the door by 6 a.m., but he was out of luck as the big box store was not open until 8 a.m.  Lucky me!  It gave me just enough time to feed the bird, feed us, pack a lunch and drinks, fold two loads of laundry, help pack the car, shower and get out the door at exactly 8 a.m.

The problem:  The pond had a bad case of algae, as the water sits stagnant.  Now that there are thousands of tiny fish, and we're sick of looking at the slick green snot that grows on top, we needed to come up with a solution.  To most, that sounds easy, but we have no electricity.  It's not as simple as putting in a pump and plugging it in.  We are totally off the grid.

The Moose decided to use two pumps, one as a fountain for aeration, the other to pump the water through a filtration process of sand, rock, etc.  But before he could complete this part, he came up with a plan to get a good amount of the pond scum out of the way.  He used some left over screening, stapled it to two pieces of thin wood, and made what ended up being a 3' x 8' pond skimmer.  It did a great job.  Totally transformed the entire pond. 

While he was in the pond in waders, he decided to try and get rid of The Fart.  The Fart is the odd bubble (s) in the pond that happen to show up now and again.  You have to actually gradually walk them over to the side of the pond, so the smelly gas (hence the name The Fart) leaves from under the liner.  It's really foul smelling, rotten eggs hundred fold!  Yuk..

Here's what it used to look like:

Well, the fountain and pump/filter both work as intended.  We already have an array of solar panels that we'll use to run them both.  We just need a larger inverter to handle the electrical requirements.  This way, they can run even if we are not there.  We'll set them up on a timer, so the12 volt batteries can keep up with their charge from the solar panels.  Now we're considering Talapia for the pond.  Anyone had success raising them?

Here's the fountain set up, and if you'll notice NO FART!