The Removal Of The Pool

The chronology of the pool removal, more or less.
Take off the rails:

Fold up the liner as best we could.

Pull the siding down.  Kev did a lot of it, but he had an assist from Mister Wind Gusts.

Pull the siding and the liner out of the way.  See those posts?  They're connected to each other side-to-side by a 1/8" (or so) steel plate / L-bracket that goes under each post - and under the sand (and therefore the pool).  Each one is also connected to the one directly across the pool from it by a 1/4" (or so) steel BAND that runs entirely under the pool.  And the sand.  And some clay.  I don't think it needs to be said that THOSE were a pain in the butt to get out.

After the removal.  Pool all gone!

Closer - North side:

And south side.  Yes, we did keep the pool ladder as another method of accessing the deck.  Deck retention is still in discussion, but we're planning on keeping at least some of it.

The yard sure looks different now.  Jeremy's enjoying it, since he has SO much more room to run & play in.  Plus, we have more opportunities to throw his ball up on the deck, over the deck, under the deck, etc. rather than just around the north side of the pool or around the south side of the pool.

How To Remove A Pool, Part 1

Step 1: Take off the rails.

Step 2: Roll up the liner.

Step 3: Let the wind knock it down.

Closeup of the North End:

Closeup of the South End:

Closing the Pool

We're taking out our swimming pool, and selling off all the cleaning equipment. Filter, pump, vac, hoses, skimmer, everything. If you know of anyone that could use these, please send 'em our way. http://fortwayne.craigslist.org/for/2961234843.html The filter is practically new - we only got it a couple years ago! This is a steal for someone if they need one.

Calling

One of the members of our congregation died yesterday. I was asked later on last night if I could play the organ for the funeral. I agreed, and I started thinking about it. People have different callings. Some to be teachers, some pastors, some cooks, some parents, etc. The organ, and the playing thereof, is one of mine. And it's important to me - not just The Playing Of The Organ, but the making sure, whenever it is possible for me to do so, that grieving families don't have the added stress of a VERY limited selection of hymns / music for the funeral. Making sure that they don't have to make do with "canned" music. As I told Pastor: "Not if it is within my power. NOT. ON. MY. WATCH." It's important to me that the families have "live" music. Evidently...that is my calling.

Dance of the sugar Plum Fairies on Glass Harp

WOW.

Wallet-friendly, eco-friendly fabric softener alternative

I was reading The Simple Dollar the other day and they mentioned using white vinegar as a fabric softener alternative. They did a comparison of costs for it, and the cost-worthiness of it over fabric softener boiled down to "depends on how much you use". The prescribed substitution use is "one cup of white vinegar per load". I'm assuming that is for a top-loader, which uses much more water, detergent and fabric softener. I decided to give it a try.

I used as much white vinegar in my (front-loader) machine as I usually use fabric softener. When the load was done, my laundry smelled...nice. CLEAN without all the overwhelming fake-floral scents of commercial fabric softener. Nice! Soft? Yeah, not a bad job, and considering that I usually only add fabric softener because otherwise our laundry smells horrible (like musty old water).

Considering that using fabric softener means I'm either oiling my clothes (liquid) or waxing them (dryer sheets), neither of which is environmentally friendly and is kind of disgusting when you think about it, I think that white vinegar is a good alternative, and one I think we'll be using a lot more in the future.
And to keep clothes from getting all staticky in the dryer, I highly recommend dryer balls.

Cool, free stuff!

I was looking through Craigslist the other day to see if we could find a new phone for Kev for cheap. His got wet a while ago, and while it still mostly works, it's developed a few...quirks. So since it's not urgent that we get him a new phone, I'm trolling Craigslist to see if we can find an acceptable one for cheap. I know, good luck.

While I was looking in the "electronics" section, I saw someone listed a Garmin GPS for $15. Really? Well, okay, it's a GPS / PDA (Garmin plus Palm) and it's kinda old, but hey, it's newer than the ones we have. So we drove out to meet the owner and check out the possible purchase of a "new" PDA. Unfortunately it wasn't charged. At all. So we couldn't verify that it worked. After some discussion, the owner offered to take it and charge it and if it worked we could arrange to meet her in Auburn to buy it, but she decided that she really didn't want to make the trip out to Auburn, so she said, "how about you just take it. It's only $15. if it works, great, if not, well, I'm sorry for wasting your time."

We got it back home, charged it overnight, and....it works! Yay!

Then we were helping with the Church Cleanout on Saturday, and I heard one of the guys talking about Walnuts. Baroo? Walnuts? Turns out he has several Black Walnut Trees and offered to give me a bunch of walnuts. So I got some yesterday, and apparently we may get more today.

Incidentally, one needs to let Black Walnuts sit for about 2 weeks after peeling them before cracking. Right after the green husk comes off is something I would not touch on a bet. Ew.