How to Steal A Pool

Long before dumpster diving was fashionable, and consignment stores were chic, foraging was a way of life in Nova Scotia. We are an economically depressed people, and for generations we have traditionally relied on re-cycling and used items, DIY projects, and the barter system to get stuff which otherwise would be beyond our reach.
When big garbage day rolls around, you can pick up some pretty cool stuff, and it's not like stealing because those people were just going to throw it out anyway. In fact people deliberately put out stuff early to give other people a chance to pick through it. This spring we put out a broken gas whipper snipper and it didn't last a day before someone came along and decided they could use it or fix it or whatever and took it away. As long as it is obvious that the item is no longer wanted by the previous owner, it is fair game. This is how we came to steal a pool.
It was just sitting there.
No one was using it.
Honest.
Last Monday we decided to go get it. It is one of those easy set up** above ground vinyl ones from Cambodian Tire. It was mostly empty as it had been sitting there on the ground in the neighbour's yard since last summer. It sat there all winter too, empty and forlorn. The neighbour's moved out last February and no one lives in the house. The house, in real estate terms is a century old fixer upper with character (read filthy condemned dump.) The lot is now being used as a place to store materials for the water main construction coming through to Kingsport. Dump trucks and loaders trundle by endlessly. You can understand why we removed the pool from the overgrown back yard. It was a rescue mission.
It had about 4 inches of water in it from the rain storms the previous week so we knew it held water. With much effort, and without waiting to don some more appropriate clothing, we hauled on the sides grunting and slipping on the algae until it emptied, getting soaked and extremely dirty in the process. It's pretty big, so I squished home to get the pickup while the other one searched for the rest of the bits in the long grass. It was at this point that it occurred to me that this was the sort of story my parents used to tell about their pre-children days.
We hauled it into the truck, along with the plastic ground sheet beneath it. The ground sheet looked and smelled like it used to cover a pile of manure, so now we were really dirty. Once at home, we hosed down the plastic sheet (and ourselves) and set about seeing if the the slimy bits would come off the pool. They did.
I must tell you that I have never really wanted a pool. Last year when our friends Andrew and Christine got a pool the other one asked me if I wanted one, and my rely was "No, I want friends with a pool, the same way I want friends with a cottage by the ocean and friends with a sail boat, and friends with and apartment in Manhattan and a town house in London. That way you get the benefits without the hassles."
One Tuesday we set it in place and started filling it up to clean it. That was when I remembered what I thought about pools and hassles.
On Wednesday we filled it.
On Thursday we were still filling it and starting to wonder about the water volume in our well.
It was looking good so we decided to buy a filter pump at The Tire. That's when the math stopped making sense. A new pool just like ours cost $299 and includes a pump, and a ladder. After paying for a new pump and ladder (which we couldn't find in the neighbour's yard) and buying the necessary filters and chemicals, we ended up forking out about $200. So much for the free pool.
On Friday we were still cautiously filling it and we started to filter the water and scrub the pool. The pool boy invented a DIY pool vacuum from a Central VAC unit he scavenged from Big Garbage last fall. Here he is demonstrating the invention.
On Saturday we filtered and scrubbed.
On Sunday we filtered and scrubbed.
On Monday we filtered and scrubbed.
Today the water is clear and the pool is clean, and it was 15 degrees and rain so we had no inclination to go for a dip.

We didn't want Willow to feel left out, so we set her up a pool too.

** Easy, yeah right.