Pool Closing

After one last swim…

It was time to close the pool for the fall.

Since our bottom drain died a few years ago, it’s been tough draining the water down to the proper level. This year I figured it out. Instead of using the little puddle pump I have and waiting hour upon hour, I rigged up the vacuum hose to the skimmer and let the pool pump do the work (the buckets only there to keep the hose from completely falling in).

Everything was going just fine while I went about preparing the cover, blocks and boards to close it all up

then it all quit. When I say “rigged up the vacuum to the skimmer”, what I really meant was just stuck it in there and let the suction keep hose in place. The skimmer has threads, but the hose doesn’t. When the pump slowly sucked down the height of the water from within the pool and the skimmer, the suction to the hose broke and was lost. It took some priming, but I got it working again. The trick then was to keep enough water in the skimmer, though the pool level was now below the skimmer, to seal around the hose. Between each trip to get a load of block and wood, I’d have to kneel down and splash a bunch of water back in the skimmer.

Annoying, but still faster than the puddle pump.

Finally the level was down and the water covered.

There’s still about a half a days work to complete the job, but at least the pump’s not running and I’m not throwing chemicals in it.

Funny thing was all the while I kept hearing Abigail screaming in the house. Never sounded horrible, just little baby girl lung testing screams. Finally I went in  to see what was going on.

Turns out Mommy and baby were playing having the time of their lives.

Lucky kid.

– b