Madeleine loves the water. Whether it be splashing in a bathtub, a pool or the shallow part of the beach, she is drawn to water.
So for the past few years, we have been buying pools for her to splash in. When she was two years old, we set up a little baby pool for her which delighted her to no end. But it was a baby pool that only was good for a year for her. Last year, my parents bought her a much larger pool which became her refuge from the heat but a leak in the pool meant a replacement which we did for this year, a rigid hard side pool.
It always pleases me to see her happy and enjoy being a child. It brings a smile to my face to see her happy.
If she only knew how much effort it takes to maintain those pools.
For my part, those pools are a real hassle. First of all, you have to scrape an area flat and clear of any vegetation before putting the pool on top of it. Otherwise, when water gets underneath the pool, the vegetation will start rotting and take on the aroma of freshly turned manure. You have to make it flat because you want to remove any lumps on the bottom of the pool which can hurt the kids along with the fact that you do not want the pool to lean down one way creating something like a deep end. All of that means plenty of digging, hoeing, raking and so much more.
Second step to set up the pool. With inflatables, you have to sit and hold a pump for half of an hour for the pool to become fully inflatable but once it’s done, then you just set up the hose and let the water pour in. With the rigid pools, you have to hold the sides of the pool by whatever means as it is water pressure that keeps the sides erect.
So with pool set up and filled with water, the job is done, right? WRONG!!!
Looking at newly filled pool with 300 gallons of water that probably cost me $10 for my water bill, you love the shimmer of the sunlight on the water and everything looks so clean and pure. But leave the pool alone for four days and you get this:
That’s the result of a few days of rain which raises the PH level of tap water which makes standing water a nice source for algae blooms. Of course, putting in some algacide should have done the job but we neglected to do that and then it was too late.
This means that the pool will have to drained and then cleaned and then refilled again. Water is not cheap this days.
But there is more than just algae to worry about. The biggest issue I have with a pool in the back yard is that when I mowed the lawn back there, i have to make a special effort to mow around the pool to avoid shooting lawn cuttings into the pool. Accumulation of organic debris in the pool is just as bad as having algae in it. Mowing the lawn is an effort in itself without having to make special accommodations for a pool.
So it goes with that pool. To give Madeleine her hour or two of playtime, splashing in the water, I may have to spend twice as much time just to maintain it. Awful lot of effort.
This is not the first time, I had to expend much effort in keeping a pool clean. Before Andrea and I were married, she lived in a house that had its own pool. It was a pool that seemingly never could be clean. We dump blocks and blocks of chlorine in the water, cleaned out the filter, scrub the sides, scoop up all of the pine leaves and other items. Hundreds of dollars and hours of work went into that pool for so little result. I should have learn my lesson by then.
So why do I keep working on the pool?
Well, for no other reason than to make my baby happy. What baby wants, baby gets but I think I need to start looking at different plan for next year. A plan that will make my life easier while Madeleine can still enjoy the pool without her reacting like this upon seeing her pool:
