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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

No Time, Tons of Ideas...

Where on earth did the day go?!  I've got to pick my daughter and her friend up from camp shortly, then supervise a play date, make dinner and lifeguard so I've got to be quick here.  There is yet more algae in the pool.  I don't know how or why and I don't really care; I just want to know how to get it gone for good.  I vacuumed, backwashed (this may have been the problem, the filter was FILTHY), rinsed and cleared out the pump filter basket.  Inside was this.... 

It's a mesh toy bag with suction cups, commonly used to hold a collection of bath toys to the tiled wall of your bathroom.  This one usually holds the small pool toys.  It went missing the other day and my daughter admitted she'd left it in the pool.  When I couldn't see it anywhere I was petrified that it had been sucked through the vacuum line and was stuck in the only usable intake line.  Close, but not quite.  Much to my amazement it made it through to the pump.  Thank goodness for the basket or we'd have big problems.  This is what the bag looks like when it's not crumpled up.  I can't believe it didn't get stuck in the lines.

I also tried to hook up one of the two automatic vacuums for the pool.  I hadn't tried it and thought "What the heck."  As suspected, it doesn't work.  It's now sitting at the bottom of the deep end after it came off the hose.  I've dosed with agaecide again and will have to shock again as well I suppose.  Grrrr.

While I was outside I had a look at the part of the garden I have slotted aside for a vegetable patch.  This lead to me measuring the area and conducting an online search regarding raised bed planters.  I think I've found a solution to not only the expense of installing them, but also what to do with the patio stones I want to get rid of.  That solution may be a kit from Lee Valley Tools that uses regular 24"x24" patio stones to build raised beds (my useable, aka newest looking ones,  are 24"x30" I hope those can work too).  Should come in around $200 for the kits and the lumber, the patio stones would be free and I would be cutting down on the cost of having them hauled away.  Plus, I'd be recycling and cutting down on new materials I'd have to purchase.  Only drawback is that they're fairly ugly looking.  However, if I know me I think it's probably just an excuse to expand upon an already great idea and find a way to beautify them.  I think it could be brilliant but more planning and configuring and costing is needed.

                                  Lee Valley Raised Bed Kit (click here for more info)


I'll get back to that at some point but right now I've got to prepare for company.  It better not rain as those girls need to swim and stay out of the house as much as possible.  The entire upstairs, including my daughters room is a construction zone/storage pit so the only place left to play is outside or in the tiny living room.  Which one would you rather use?

1 comment:

  1. Hi Shauna,

    Ben bought 'joists' (used for holding up the roof) for our raised beds, which might be a cheaper solution.
    I love reading all your DIY stories ; I really admire the way you tackle things on your own - like Lara Croft :-)

    Lieve

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