The pool weekend was a huge success! Martin and I were lucky to have so much family there to help us as there would be no way any of this would have happened without them!
Mom and Dad got into town on Friday night, and Saturday morning started bright and early at 6 AM when Martin and Dad headed out to start the sump pump. Somebody was looking out for all of us on Saturday because the weather was just perfect; cool and a little cloudy for most of the day. As the water level started to go down, we all worked on some pressure washing around the pool and then eventually moved into the pool. I quickly discovered a love for pressure washing because of the instant results you see... very rewarding! If you've never tried it, I recommend it.
Kristen, Trey, Thomas, Joy, Brian, Jack, and Olivia arrived later in the morning ready to help! Trey and Kristen got started with some more pressure washing (see the action shots below) and Brian supplied another, and better, pressure washer which we couldn't have done without. Martin worked on patching up a few cracks with hydraulic cement as the pool drained, and we even discovered our pool had a working light.
I have to mention the turtles because they were really a big part of the day. Towards the end of May, Martin noticed two turtles living in our pool which have remained there for several months. We have no idea how they arrived, but we knew they had a great home in the cement pond. "Turtle patrol" became a job on Saturday that was rotated between several people; this consisted of standing ready with net in hand to scoop up the turtles as they came up to get air. In the past, when I think of turtles, I think... slow. These guys taught us all differently. They would come up for air and dive back down quickly which made it for difficult for us to catch. As it turned out, we had to wait until the water level was down to about 1 foot before Trey rescued both turtles. Go Trey! We released them into the creek in our backyard.
After the pool was completely drained which took about 6 hours, we quickly got to work doing some more major pressure washing to turn the pool from green to white, or almost white. It was a fun job but quite tricky to wash the sides of the pool in the deep end. I wish I had a picture of the team effort put forth as Martin held me up on the side of the pool and vice versa while I washed.
Martin and Brian, along with the help of Brian's ASP friends reached via phone, worked on the pool light to make sure this was not a source of a leak. They also discovered the drain was not plugged and worked great! At around 5:30 or 6:00, we all decided it was about time to stop, although I could have continued pressure washing for hours. It was time for our Barley's Pizza dinner. We all worked hard to get the pool as clean as possible, and it really is amazing to see the improvements. The very last picture is Martin turinng on the water to fill up the pool... a moment we had to capture on camera.
Thank you again to everyone who came!!! We can't wait to have everyone back for a real swim!
