October 17, 2006

Better late than never.

The pool was originally scheduled to be closed last week, but I had some uncertainty as to whether the new pool guys would close a green pool (i.e., one with a dead pump.) So I gave them a call, and sure enough, they wanted it clean. So I ended up calling my old pool guy and asking him to close it instead, with the idea that we'll clean it up in the spring. Or fill it in.

People I've spoken to seem to be against the idea of eliminating the pool, stating that it is "beautiful". Clearly they don't watch the Poolcam regularly. Anyway, that's a decision we can reach over the winter, after we talk to some landscape architects and shop around for pool demolition services.

September 30, 2006

Apparently I couldn't end the pool season without at least one chipmunk buying it. So here he is - to the left floating in the "glorious" green that is our swamp pool, and to the right as he appeared when I fished him out, just before his brief flight into the woods.

The pool guys are still coming to close the pool on October 10th, and they do not require a working pump to do it. That is good. That is very good.

September 24, 2006

Found this poor mouse floating over near the sitting area. He'd obviously been there quite a while. The pool was a disgusting shade of green when we went out to jam a bunch of chemicals into it to try to get it ready for closing. The pump wasn't on, though, which was odd. We fooled around with it for a bit and found that the circuit breaker would pop as soon as the pump wanted to go on. Great.

Now I need to call the pool people (who are coming on Oct 10, in theory, to close the pool) and find out if they can do it without a pump. We were going to put new permanent stakes in on the garden side to hold the pool cover down properly this winter after I discovered that such things existed at a work party this summer, but now we are seriously considering just filling the whole damn pool in. I'm sure that will make the rodent and amphibian populations around the house a lot happier. Or not. All I know is that I think I've gotten into the pool exactly once in the last two years, and looking at it pretty much fills me with dread.

So, we shall see. This year may be the last for tracking pool dead, which is a shame because I'll have to figure out some other subject with the initials "TWFDIOP." I have mixed feelings.

July 29, 2006

With vacation and all, I haven't been particularly vigilant about pool maintenance. The green pall of the water testifies to this.

I did get out today to pull out a few dead things and a whole lot of live frogs. Frogs love my pool, especially when I haven't put any chlorine in it for weeks and weeks.

The frog to the left was floating at the north end of the pool, and the sun was baking it nicely. The mouse(?) to the right was in the southern skimmer. I'm pretty sure it was a mouse - I thought I saw some gray fur in there.

The other two pictures are just for fun - both of those critters were alive and kicking. The frog is an odd color, while the salamander is just cool.

June 29, 2006

An auspicious day, in so many ways! Finally, the pool claims a few victims. At least, the very first ones I've seen - I'm sure many others have come and gone while I was busily neglecting my pool duties for other higher priority tasks. Yes, it's all about priorities, isn't it?

Both of these bad boys were taken from the south end of the pool. The first was in final repose in the skimmer basket, along with a lot of grass clippings from the recent lawn mowing. The second somewhat bloated creature was bobbing in the water near the skimmer intake - I had to disturb the water a bit to get him to float free. Thank goodness my sense of smell is so weak.

June 19, 2006

One month, no dead creatures? Ok, I haven't really been looking at that hard.

May 19, 2006

The swamp pool is open, right on schedule. Now to ignore it for a month or two.

May 15, 2006

I've gotten confirmation for the pool opening at the end of this week. It's a little early this year, but we don't want the pool guys trampling over the new plantings, so it had to be done before the last week of the month.

February 5, 2006

It's funny how time flies when you are working hard. I have finally gotten around to getting the 2006 page started, but only because the servers at work are down so I have a little time. Let the counting begin!