2011 Pool Opening

Pool in winter

About thirteen years ago, we put in a pool.  At the time our entire back yard was grass, all grass--no pond, no trees, no anything--so a pool was an ideal space filler.

This picture was taken a couple of winters ago (no fireplace!), but you can see that the cover is spring-loaded and attached to the deck.  The cover is made up of a mesh material.  Mesh has tiny little holes in it, thus all sorts of dirt, pollen and various other funk falls through, but it keeps the majority of leaves and other stuff out of the pool (organic debris stains the plaster).

cover removed

Last weekend--Saturday, we 'opened' the pool.  This means we took the cover off and had to start vacuuming the funk off the bottom.  Oh, and when I say 'we' it's that royal kind of we, where my hubby does the work. And I watch and click some pictures.
 

vacuuming funk from bottom

 When you vacuum the bottom of the pool, you don't want to put it through your filter as it will just glump it up and you'll have to constantly clean the darn thing, so it goes to waste.  Luckily we have school property behind us and it has a huge water drainage system, so our water goes down there.  Plus if you looked at old Platte's of the school and neighborhood, you would notice that the back part of our yard was a pond.

 Slowly running the vacuum helps keep the funk on the bottom and doesn't stir it up too much.  At the same time, we needed to drain the pool.  There's a product that is put in Chlorine tablets called 'conditioner', which causes a cynuric acid build up.  This doesn't harm the swimmer, but it does cause the chlorine to become basically inert, which means it doesn't do it's job of sanitizing. The only way to get rid of it is to drain the pool and clean the plaster sides. 


partially drained









At this time, we noticed a 'verde gris' mottling on the plaster.  This is usually caused by copper that is pulled out of the water and it stains the pool.  Again, it isn't harmful, just not as attractive to swim in.

After we drained 1/2 the pool, and the child and her friend decided it would be 'fun' to play in the 55 degree water and, of course, managed to get soaked, we filled the pool.  Two hoses going full blast took it about 18 hours to fill up. 

next morning

We couldn't run the pump while it was filling, so it's still cloudy, but you can see the dots on the stairs.  The hubster had power washed the stairs, but the neighbor's maple tree was puking little yellow whirlygigs and they stained the stairs.  The chlorine will eventually fade them.

Monday/ kreepy krauly

Here is the pool today--Tuesday.

Tuesday morning with Maggie

And that my friends is what opening a pool looks like.  Now all we need to do is turn the heater on and have some glorious sunshine and we are ready to party this summer!

Later, Peeps!