ygmir wrote:how did the pond repair go?
Ah yes, the duck pond... one of the major headaches at the Amadeus Dyrepark (animal park). My brother wanted to clean and expand and generally upgrade the pond, so it would need to be drained, and the 4 inch drain pipe in the dam could not keep up with the inflow. So they tore out the old dam and built a new one with a 12 inch drain valve.
I took part in tearing down the old dam with a sledge and other manual implements. Reinforced concrete, yes.
The new dam was built with logs. The fellow who built it competes in the annual Norwegian Chainsaw Championship. So it looked very nice. Only it leaked. It was simply not properly built into the terrain. The running water washed away the soil around the new dam. (Haste makes waste and all that.)
Last I looked, water seemed to be running only thru the valve, so they may have gotten it sealed. I know they drove sheets of plywood into the soil, and they applied numerous sacks of various compounds....
I did bring up Bentonite, and the fellow said he knew what I was talking about, but.... Now that I'm on my own computer again I'll see if I can translate bentonite to Norwegian.
As for Amadeus Dyrepark in general.... They have a wondrous collection of animals not often seen in Norway, and the scenery is breathtaking. Essentially, visitors walk a mile or so on wide foot-paths among a variety of spacious animal-habitats laid out in spruce- and birch-forest. To my pleasant surprise, the animals do not hide in the back of their habitats when people show up. Rather, they come to the front fences to interact. Of course, the fact that the park sells bags of feed to the visitors might have something to do with that.
That said, some of the warm-climate critters are not always on display -- a necessity for their well-being. Visitors I talked with seemed to understand and accept that just fine.
There is a playground, a hot dog and ice cream booth, picnic tables, barbeque pits.... Families make a day of it, and it's only an hour-and-a-half drive from downtown Oslo. Pretty cool.
The newest arrivals are two red foxes, rescued from a fur farm. They won't be on display for a while, but they represent the expansion my brother is working on.
Oh... make that
several red foxes -- they arrived pregnant.
Next door to this place, some other people are building an authentic Viking longhouse, felling their own logs right on the premises and so forth, as the centerpiece of a small Viking museum/theme park. So long term this will be quite a place to visit.