Swimming pools blog

Just thought y’all might get a kick or relate to this story.
Last year my teenager decided to sell her clarinet and get a pool.
Aw, what the heck, I’m game.
She saw a pool 15′ X 36″ at WalMart. That was the one. Mind you, we
were on a mini vacation and were about 2 hours from home. The car
was jammed full of stuff. The pool was purchased and a stock person
helped us out to the car with our gigantic “pool in a box”. He took
one look at the car and paled, “Uh, where are you going to put it?”
Calmly I replied, “Ah, we might have to move some things but we can
put it in the back seat.” The truth was that it wouldn’t have fit in
the trunk! So there we were, standing in the middle of the WalMart
parking lot, in the sourching heat, unloading the car. But boy! Was
it going to be great when we got it home and set up!! I envisioned
myself floating around the pool with a cool umbrella drink in my
hand, yes, paradise in our own backyard.

2 days later we finally got the pool unloaded from the car and had
the parts scattered throughout the back yard. Look there! A video
tape on how to set this thing up! Hmmm, more time then I wanted to
spend but hey, might as well do it right.
After viewing the video and armed with a spray can and string. I
headed to the back yard to get started. Got it all marked. That went
well!
Then it was time to get the hubby involved. “Dear, I need you to de-
sod the area I have marked out in the back.” As the de-sodding
began, so did a scrapping noise under the shovel. What the heck?
ROCKS! Oh No! Well, the next 2 days were used to remove rocks from
our neat little circle. Going to need some sand now. A few trips to
the river did it. A couple more days…
Finally! Our pool space was prepared and ready for the pool. As I
lay in 90 degree heat between the folded over outside wall putting
the 100 bolts in it, my vision of paradise changed to me stretched
out on the sofa in front of the air conditioner with a drink in each
hand, sans the umbrellas!
The outside wall goes up. The liner goes in. Filter system attached
to the side. Well, this looks a lot like my aquarium filter. Hope
it works.
Next comes the water! Well water, ice cold. This may take awhile to
warm up!
2 days later….(I call this our “2 day pool”- 2day prep, 2 day set
up, 2 day fill, 2 day swim, 2 day clean, etc. etc.)
Ready! Yeah! Before I can don my suit and head to the back a whole
herd of kids come walking up my driveway ready to swim! Ok, let the
kids have their fun first, then I can jump in and cool off when
they’re done.
Within a half an hour, OK TIMES UP!! EVERYBODY OUT! I am totally
stressed out and putting a hose back into our semi warm pool to
refill all the water that was now displaced into the yard. Yuck!
what is all this grass in the pool? Why is it all dirty?
Having pool experience neighbors was a godsend at this point. They
came over and lined me out with a whole list of stuff to buy for our
pool. Clarifier, shock, chlorine, PH minus, a test kit, algacide.
Holy cow! I need all that??!! They had just replaced their above
ground pool and had a sand filter, 1 hp pump and net I could borrow.
They kindly came over and helped me set it all up. The next day we
were set for round 2. The pool was clean and clear and looked like
it was supposed to again. Yippee! I finally got to enjoy it. I
snuck out of the house and quietly slithered into the water. At
last!
Floating around on my back…what was that? Did I hear something? I
pop up to see the family all standing around ready to “get cooled
off” as my sister-in-law put it. Ok, so my 10 minutes of total
paradise was lost.
Things never did calm down. Seemed like there was always a pool full
of friends or family or friends of the family enjoying MY pool.
Every evening, I would toil away at removing the debris, checking and
rechecking the chemicals.
This pool thing wasn’t all it cracked up to be. In a few more days,
the pool was filthy. Even with the kiddy pool for a foot wash before
entering. Again my neighbors came to the rescue with some little
buggy looking thing that hooked up to the pump and a solar cover.
I was trully glad to see the cooler weather come and the popularity
of the pool wear off.
We wintered the pool. It survived. Damn!
Last week, the temperatures got up in the 90’s again and it was time
to go through it all again. But the pump was about shot so I
replaced it with a 1 hp 50+ gpm pump that used to go to a hot tub. I
hooked it all up, got it running and kicked back when my son came to
me with a handful of something and said, “Mom, how did all this get
into the pool?” I kind of off handedly said, “It’s just debris, the
sand filter will get it.” “Uh, mom? It IS sand.” Sure enough. I
guess the pump was a little strong for the sand filter. Seems we
pumped about 50 lbs. of sand into the bottom of the pool. Oopps.
Major opps. Back to the pool store for a vacuum and new filter
cartridge. Square one.
Through a plethora of other problems, I won’t get into, dealing with
piping, I just had to take a break from it all yesterday. The pool
was refilling and filtering. The hubby asked me out to dinner.
When we returned home lastnight, we were greeted with “Come see the
pool!” I thought oh my god, what now! Swimming around in the pool
were 7 ducklings! Seems the dogs found a nest and scattered all the
ducks and ducklings far and wide. The kids worrying about their well
being brought them home.
Needless to say, there was a stern talk about wild animals! Maybe I
should have given them a stern talk about pool maintenance!!!
The ducklings have been relocated and pool is finally covered and
warming.
But now the question…Do the little bubbles on the solar cover go up
or down?
Thanx in advance from a new pool owner/mom of teen/harborer of
wildlife,
Jewell