Mourning Shift starting to show up, and a bit of pool stuff

The pool is finally full and beautiful. The patch is holding, and the pump is running (though a few replacement parts are on order, so we don't run the pump full time yet). The water is warming up- the girls swam yesterday morning, squealing for the first 15 minutes about the cold water, and then having a wonderful time. I swam laps in the afternoon, and remembered how very much I love swimming, though I'm nowhere in shape enough to swim 300yards in a single go. I'll work up to it.

It's so beautiful. And it's calming just to watch the light dance on the water. Unfortunately, there is no light dancing on the water right now, because it's going to storm. Of course.

In the meantime, the eBook version of  Mourning Shift (the 4th Tory Bauer Mystery) is going live. It's up at Scribd and Smashwords now. It'll show up on Amazon and B&N in 1-3 days, though it could appear any minute. It'll be up and available at Sony within 2 weeks.

I'll post here, and link to the right for the Amazon and B&N listings as soon as they're up and running.

I'm proofing Cold Front now, and it'll be ready to upload in 2-3 weeks, and after that, Foreign Body. It's been quite an adventure, and once again, I want to thank my friend Ryan Boettger and his Grad Tech Students for the formatting, and Curtis Taylor for the amazing covers!

Pool Repair and Rehab Part 4

This is what the pool looked like yesterday morning.

 This is what it looks like, 24 hours later, with a steady 5 gallons per minute fill. It'll take all day to finish filling as the sides stand up straight (10,000 gallons of water is a lot of water, y'all). The bottom edge of the patch is barely wet even still.

As it filled yesterday, The Hub wheeled out the sand filter pump and got it hooked up. Of course, the motor burned out right away, but we had another because The Hub thought that might happen and he ordered one last winter. Have I mentioned that The Hub is a genius? And perhaps psychic?

We started the filter right away even though the water levels weren't high enough to cover the outlet valve, so it made some foam (with the newly added chemicals)(we don't use chlorine- the system we use only has to be added every 4 weeks or so, it doesn't turn your hair into straw or rot your swimsuit or make your dry skin smell like bleach). Anyway, I just like this picture. And look at how clear and pretty and blue the water is. A major improvement from 4 days ago.

I love love love watching the water reflections. They're so calming.

The Hub, taking a well deserved rest.

The Grands are coming out this afternoon for the Inaugural Swim, and it should be wonderful. I may or may not get into the water. Our solar pool heating system is in place, but I have this thing about not getting into water that is less than... oh say... 78 degrees or so. We'll see how it goes.

Here's The Hub's improvised solar heater... 1600' of 2" black hose coiled on black plastic, hooked to a submersible pump (850gph) that pumps water into and through the hose, and then back into the pool a good 15 degrees warmer than it entered. It'll take awhile for the pool to heat up since it's a new fill, but this simple solar heater keeps the water around 80-85 degrees most days, and we have to shut it off on the really hot days (no one wants to swim in 90 degree water on a 100 degree day). It's not pretty but it gets the job done  efficiently and cheaply.

 We still don't know if the patch will hold, but if it doesn't, he has some other notions to try, because, as I have mentioned, he's a Genius.

(The Hub wants me to say that it's possible that none of his notions will work, but I say if that's the case, then no one would have been able to do it, and it was certainly worth taking a chance)

Pool Repair and Rehab Part 3

Yesterday was The Day of Truth... or rather, the day preparing for Today's Day of Truth, though we truly won't know if the patch will hold properly until we put it through a month's worth of lap swimming, and laughing Grands. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It was determined pretty quickly that I do not have the strength to hold the pool side up and taut for the patching process, so The Hub improvised.

He's good at improvising.

And he wasn't even a Boy Scout.

Measuring vinyl patch pieces.

Checking size and drawing around them for permanent placement.

 Painting the pool with the adhesive for Patch #1. Man, that stuff stinks. (Note the lack of hat- it was too hot in the afternoon to try to glue anything, so we waited until evening when the pool is in the shadow of the house)

 Painting Patch #1 likewise.

There are no photos of The Patchening Process because I had to help, but it's pretty straightforward: very carefully position the patch and then rub the living shit out of it so it adheres to the pool side, while trying not to inhale (as I said, that stuff stinks... and it'll get you higher than a kite).

Repeat on the inside. Note that The Hub, who does not like swimming, and who would rather not wade in cold water, had to GET INTO THE POOL in order to apply Patch #2. The board was put in place to keep the outside patch flat so that there were no wrinkles on the inside. The Hub may devise a way to keep that board there just for added support to the patch.

Aaaaannnnnd, it's in place.

It's the morning after now, and the patches held, tightening down nicely, with no lifting of the corners or edges even though it rained during the night. The original plan was to apply a 3rd patch up and over the edge of the pool, covering both patches with an additional piece of vinyl, but we ran out of adhesive. This vinyl and adhesive is rated for severe temps (-35 to 180+F) and is water proof, and also flexible and elastic, so these patches may hold by themselves. If not, then we'll get more adhesive and apply the additional patch.

This notion may not work, but it was surely worth trying (currently, a new pool liner costs more than we paid for the original setup, pump and heater and all). Today we'll continue filling the pool, and The Hub will get the filter and pump up and running, and after that, Pool Maintenance is my job for the summer.

I'll keep you posted.

Pool Repair and Rehab Part 2

No actual repairs were made yesterday, but there was plenty of rehab.

 Most of the soap and water had been pumped out, but there were still stains on the vinyl floor.

 The Hub decided to try one last thing to get rid of the stains.

 Oh so very carefully, he pressure washed the pool floor. I say carefully because the pressure washer can blow paint off, and it could easily have torn a hole in the vinyl. But The Hub knows what he's doing, and the floor is now as clean as it's ever going to be.

Brushing the excess water toward the pump.

Oh, Pool Boy...

 Hand scooping the last of the dirty water into a bucket.

 The remaining dirt is loose, and it'll be picked up by the pool vacuum once everything is up and running.

 The Hub thinks that the hole repair will go better if there is some water in the pool to stabilize the sides, so the partial filling has begun. We have an Artesian well, and we fill the pool with well runoff (a pressure release for the well, this water generally runs down the hill to the creek). It runs about 5 gallons per minute. The pool holds 10,000 gallons. We put the hose in at about 2:30pm yesterday afternoon.

 By evening, the thunderheads were building up 75 miles away.

 This cell blew away from us, but others came through. We got rain, wind, and a lot of thunder.

This morning, there was maybe 8" of water in the pool (it takes a lot of water to fill out those sides). You may not be able to see it in this photo, but the #@$%# Grackles scoop up poop globs from their nests and then drop them into the pool. It happens every year, and evidently they don't need a full toilet.

Weather permitting and fate willing, today he'll tackle setting up the filter, and the patching.

Stay tuned.

Pool Repair and Rehab, Part 1

Poor Hub. He doesn't like to swim, and he only gets in the pool on the very hottest of days. And yet, he's always the one stuck with bringing the pool up to speed for the season. That's a wearying job during easy years.

This is not an easy year.

This is what the pool should look like by now.

But this happened last August, during a nasty wind storm. It blew a chair from the back deck, into the soft-side of the pool, and made a nice long slice in it. Officially, the pool liner (the most expensive part of the pool, even moreso than the pump or the heater) was toast- unreparable because of the location and length of the hole (the chair leg cut through 2 layers of vinyl).

So we drained the pool 2/3 down as always and then let it sit over the winter as always. And then we let it sit in the thaw as always. And then we let it sit... unlike always, assuming that we were going to replace the entire liner in the spring.

We still hadn't bought the replacement when The Hub had A Thought. I've mentioned The Hub's Genius Notions before, and the fact that his notions nearly always work out. This one may or may not work, but it was certainly worth a shot. He had an idea for patching the pool with heavy vinyl purchased from one of the local Hutterite Colonies. So a week or so ago, we drove out to Glendale Colony and got the supplies.

But before any repairs could be attempted, the pool had to be drained and cleaned.

This is what it looked like yesterday- dirty, disgusting, slimy (though not smelly). It was almost physically painful to see the water looking like that.

 The Hub, who does not swim, who does not even enjoy watching people swim, borrowed a big pump

 with a big hose.

And then he put on his boots and got in, guiding the hose to the largest accumulations of leaves and sticks and dirt (and things I don't even want to contemplate).

 It was kind of fun to watch.

 It soon became apparent that the mess was stuck pretty solidly to the pool liner. So we added more water, and an entire bottle of Dawn dish soap (hey, if it's good enough for penguins and raw fleeces, it's good enough for my pool).

That helped, though there was still a lot of stuck-on gunk. (And just so you'll know, I volunteered to get in and do the sweeping and scrubbing, but was turned down).

 The Grands thoroughly enjoyed watching the pump make lots of bubbles. Lots and lots of bubbles.

 The big pump left a couple of inches of water in the bottom of the pool, so it was replaced with a much smaller pump.

 It's still not clean, but man, it looks better than it did.

The Son helped hold the sides up so The Hub could scrub some more. It's looking more and more like my pool. Empty, but still my pool, and not a Mosquito Hatchery.

So, tomorrow, more scrubbing, and maybe some actual possible hope-it-works repair.

Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed.