2/ I was filling the pond up manually with the hose from the rain harvester tank. I put a float switch and relay so that it cuts the pump if it starts to run dry. The fucking float switch just stuck. It's an absolute pain priming that pump sometimes as it's pernickity. And very heavy.
3/ Oh, and the pond cascase is leaking somewhere so I can't run the cascade pump until I find the problem (that's why the pond was half empty). The fountain in the small pond exploded. Every couple of months the drain gets full of roots and I have get splattered with shit trying to rod it.
4/ This is the state of all the material stuff that surrounds me every day. It's all junk or inadequately designed. You try to invest in smart things to save power, water, whatever, and they just fail all the bloody time.