September 29, 2004

No more critter demise - the pool is closed. It was supposed to be closed yesterday, but the rain delayed the pool guys for a day. At least I think it closed today - we are up at Lake Winnipesaukee for a little R & R. And so another pool season draws to a close.

September 27, 2004

The last hurrah - these four critters expired sometime in the last month. Yeah, they were pretty far gone - I had to guess that the last one was a chipmunk. Now the pool is prepared for a rather early closing - no endless scooping of fallen leaves this year! There were five live frogs in the pool dodging around while I was getting a few last leaves out of the pool. They just love it when there's no chlorine in there.

August 23, 2004

I found these two frogs in the northern skimmer. At first, I thought it was one frog that had thrown up - but then I realized that the second frog was just very tenuous after being submerged for so long. The picture is not very clear, but it was definitely two frogs when I scooped them out. I also rescued three live frogs that were enjoying the pond-like atmosphere (hydrosphere?) of the swamp that is our pool.

August 13, 2004

August 8, 2004

Man, have I been lazy. I finally got out to the pool to check for dead stuff after several weeks. Yes, there were at least four mice. They were very decomposed, and the aforementioned laziness resulted in me tossing them in the woods without taking their pictures first. Nevertheless, I am counting them. Who knows how many critters died and decomposed in that time? If the final count is low this year, I have only myself to blame.

July 11, 2004

I found another mouse today, also sunk in the shallow end of the pool. Well, the pool water has been so low there really wasn't much chance of these mice ending up in the skimmer baskets. We took care of that today, backflushing the filter and topping off the water in the pool in an attempt to actually get it into a shape where we might want to swim in it.

July 10, 2004

No big excitement here, although the pool has unclouded since last weekend. I found this little fellow in the shallow end of the pool, slowly drifting toward the deep end. It's funny how the mice sink, if they sink at all. In this case, his little face pointed downwards while the rest of him floated above. I treated his corpse to a nice catapult ride into the woods.

July 3, 2004

Some morning maintenance revealed this chipmunk which had sunk to the bottom at the shallow end of the pool. Of course, he was pretty hard to spot given how cloudy the pool water has become over the last week. Sigh. It's always a constant battle. And I'm not just talking about pool maintenance.

Anyway, since I was using the new pool skimmer pole, I was unwilling to give Chippy the traditional catapult into the woods, for fear of bending my pole. (The pole. Oh hell. More sighing.) Instead, I opted to extend the net gingerly into the forest behind the rose garden, and just dump him there. Next time I'll make sure to grab the old, slightly bent skimmer pole instead. After all, these creatures deserve at least a mighty send-off, don't they? And if they are unable to exactly enjoy their brief but exhilarating flight as much as I do, well, I really can't be held responsible for their feelings or lack thereof.

June 23, 2004

Hey - the pool's clean, it has been heated all day, and I actually got in for a swim with "the guys" today. So at least this year I will have gotten some use out of the pool. Anyway, before the guests arrived today, I fished this "mouse" out of the deep end. I am going to count it as a mouse, even though those are some long back legs. It makes me wonder how many of these rodents I am misclassifying.

June 20, 2004

It's been a week since I last checked the pool. I only found this one mouse bobbing in the southern skimmer. We got new parts for the pool robot, but we neglected to get all new hosing - and the old hoses were, well, hosed. Too much chlorine and UV, I suppose. Even getting the old hose off was a challenge, but we managed with the help of a hacksaw. Unfortunately, that also meant that we had to buy some new hose nuts, and that just added to the delay. Anyway, I am going to look around for a local source for some flexible tubing to hook up to the robot.

June 13, 2004

On this lucky thirteenth, I scooped the first mouse out of the deep end of the pool - looks like he's been there a few days. I then got the second mouse and the frog out of the northern skimmer. It really seems early in the year for frogs, but then again, the pool opened a lot later than usual this year. Today I finally got around to getting most of the leaves out of the pool with a new leaf rake. We've also ordered replacement parts for the robot which should be arriving early in the coming week.

June 9, 2004

Well, believe it or not, the pool heater was fixed on the promised date, too. Awesome! The pool is still full of leaves and such, because our pool robot is down right now. I think its hoses spent a little too much time in the chlorine.

Anyway, I scooped the season's very first dead animals out today. And this year, there will be no controversy about winter kill - I didn't see any, and both the frog and the mouse were retrieved from the northern skimmer, quite fresh. (I had spotted the mouse floating earlier in the day when I went out to talk to the pool guy, but I didn't want to appear like a nut by photographing it just then. No, if you want to identify me as a nut, you have to find this site yourself.)

June 7, 2004

Hey, the pool opened on schedule for a change this year!

May 20, 2004

The pool heater will be fixed this year, in theory on June 9th. I have to get in the pool this year - I must. It is my mission. And if getting the water up to a balmy 85 degrees F is what it takes, then so be it.

May 13, 2004

The pool will open later than ever this year - June 7th. I've also asked the pool guys to replace the parts of the heater that have been eaten by rodents over the last few years. Bravo, my little furry friends! Wreaking your revenge on me in the only way you can must be sweet. You've hurt me in my most sensitive area - my wallet.

January 6, 2004

I'm a little slow out of the chute this year - but here's the new look for 2004. The pool, as you can see, is quite frozen.