Pool Is Nearly Ready!

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Do you think we were ready for a new liner?





Our work on the pool lasted until about 12:30 yesterday. Some dear friends of ours came over to help. I miss having a big work crew. All the extra boys cut the work down to about 2 hours.

I have two regrets about yesterday.

We were so busy that I did not document how to do this project. That was one thing I wanted to do with this blog; make sure that each thing we did I photographed and shared so that others could learn from us. Whether it was what worked or what didn't work.

So I not only did not photograph it all, but I also am getting tired of how I take pictures of people.

It is my nature to not be demanding of people's attention. So I love to take pictures of people, but rarely do I call them to look up. I most often just take shots of what they are doing. But I miss seeing their smiles and their eyes, as well as showing the joyful sides after the events, of everyone taking a moment to stop and smile for one another at the camera.

I want to improve this in my photos.

Anyhow, we had started siphoning the pool Tuesday night. By Wednesday morning it was mostly empty. Michael was still working on that while I began taking the pool filter apart to change out the sand. It was then that our friends came by to help.

My dear friend brought her younger three boys over and they quickly began bailing out what was left.





Slicing the old liner up and tossing it out, the new liner was put in. The idea is to drape the liner, dangling above the ground along the top of the pool, holding the vinyl with clamps. You add a little water and the vinyl stretches down, wrinkle-free, and settles into the pool wall.

However, and I wish I had a picture of this, the pool wall is nearly completely rusted through. I can't afford to replace it, so we are just keeping our fingers crossed we can get a couple more years out of it. It actually has duct-taped holes.

So the pool wall was not going to be able to support any weight. The goal then was very simple. Get the liner in A) with as few wrinkles as possible B) without putting holes into it and C) without the wall collapsing.

Piece of cake!





I felt confident the boys could handle this and I worked on the filter the whole time, but for a short break to share my garden happenings with my friend. The filter was kind of a pain, as I was figuring it out as I went along. There are no instructions on how to change the sand. After a couple of phone calls which took about 1/2 and hour total, I found that you need to have water in the sand ---- water I'd taken out in January ---- so that you can move the innards around and dig the sand out with a little scoop. I used my one cup measure from the kitchen.

So, once that was done I began scooping. Jeremy, asked if we had a wet/dry vac, and since that was one of the recommended ways to remove the sand, he went and got the one we had attached to the studio as a filtration system for the eggshell carving I used to do. It was rather small, so it took a while. But the job was done!

Smoothing out wrinkles...





And while the pool was filling later, Michael went for a "swim".





The rest of the day we picked peas, cherries, and strawberries. A little fertilizing. Did a lot of watering, as it was getting a bit dry, and also in preparation of the weeding we are going to do today.

We left to go to our home group last night, and realized while we were in town that we'd left the water on to the pool and to the garden. So we had to come all the way back home and miss our friends.

I really thrashed my knee yesterday, hauling 5 gallon buckets of sand. I could hardly walk last night. I'm a little better this morning, but still limping a lot. I need to stay off it, but there is too much to be done.

DONE - Cut vinyl and install the filtering attachments back in
- Finish filling pool
- Replace deck board
- Weed and mulch garden beds
- Cut out fireblight I spotted on the gooseberries, cranberries, and cherries
- Bag up the vinyl liner for the landfill
- Spray back pasture fence line and garden fence line
- Move rain gauge to new location

Glad for a slight drop in temperatures today!

Faith

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