Welcom to Our Poo_

Well it's cold, and it's July here
And the back yard smells like poop.
Its kind of a drag to think about,
This might be the best this summer gets.



A couple weeks ago, the kids convinced me it was a good time to get a swimming pool. There were hot days coming and the run on pools had not happened yet, so I agreed and we headed to Plastics 'R' Us, whick was still pretty well stocked. Of course that only makes it more difficult to choose, having more than one to choose from. I was thinking the little inflatable one or two ring pool would still  work for them. They reminded me that there are FOUR of them and they wanted to get more than their toes wet so we started looking at the larger pools. A lot larger.

They liked the floating rim one. I envisioned a kid getting stuck under the floating rim. They liked the four ft tall one, I envisioned being paged for heavy lifting everytime the younger ones wanted in or out.  We finally settled on the 3 ft tall x 12 ft diameter pool. Then I thought I should double check with Shane and ask how much lawn we were willing to give up. He pointed out we we don't have much lawn, mostly clover and dandelions and he didn't care how much of it we drowned. The other 'feature' of our yard is that it is mostly clay with a clover veneer. So it doesn't drain much. Or at all. We decided we could turn the left side into a swamp, so I hauled out the huge box, plopped it in the car and away we went.


With the two big kids helping, set up was pretty quick. Filling it up, no so fast. But eventually it was enough for them to splash and swim in and they spent the rest of the day in it. And the next. Then we headed down to the property so we had to drain it. At first the almost 2,000 gallon capacity seemed cool and luxurious. But when you go to drain it, its kind of a pain. Luckily it has an attachment for a hose so at least we could spread it around.

Well, it has been too cold since and we have not filled the pool again. There was one warm week-end, but we were away. Apparently it got very warm. It was at least hot enough to give one of our little lizards heat stroke. At least that was our guess when we found her sunken-eyed and super stinky the next morning. I got to use one of my snowman cookie boxes again. Our back woods now houses a pet cemetery and it is hard to not step on hallowed ground, which Cyril gets very offended by. I guess we should build a fence around the graves.

But back to the other offending odor. We decided we should move the pool, since it was drained, and maybe give the clover a chance. It looks ok when it is mowed. So last night we flipped it over on its back side, its 10 metal legs all sticking up in the air like a dead animal. And from the deceased clover patch came a stench, much like a dead animal. There was no safe place in the yard so we rereated into the house gagging and laughing. We suddenly remembered the summer before when we had just done the same for our old pool, thus releasing the toxic smell into the air making our back yard off limits for at least a week. Then that night, our neighbors decided to have a big party in their back yard. They have dogs so we could just imagine what all the guests would be  sure they had just stepped in all evening.

But lucky for them, this is no summer party weather we've been having. If it lasts a week, we might be get away with it. Its still pretty ripe this morning, I had to take the garbage out, but without the sun heating and intensifying it, it might not last as long.