"~ jan" wrote in message...
"a425couple" wrote:
(SNIP to reduce, lots of good stuff)
a few koi. Losing the fish to the racoons was an emotional
downer, and I fought with them for well over a decade,
As it turned out, we bought a house on a private 5 acre lake.
Now I have to routinely battle the beaver dams!! Argh!!

I ought to correct / clarify the above line.
It should be "Now during the winter every other day or
so, I have to reduce the beaver dams to minimize flooding."
(significant change in philosophy, I'm not doing any
"battle" now with wild animals).

Wow, that is quite the change.

I was living in almost bliss pond-wise in 08, the motion sprinkler took
care of any predator problems. ---- more motion sprinklers,
-- hot wire ----- herons --- braided wire -- More braided line --
Other than seeing the raccoons walk thru and keep on walking, nothing else
has ventured in and the fish have been safe. We also did lines across the
lily pond for just in case. All the lines are high up, so my visitors
don't
even notice them till I point them out. ~ jan

Sounds idyllic. Good for you.
You took the 'warding them off' (target hardening) path and
it sounds like it's worked well for you.

Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

So, by the way, was the hawk and heron just a wildlife kill,
captured on camara, or what?