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.

Please Don't Eat the Daisies

So last Tuesday while I was running around putting out fires (literally) I was meant to be planting a garden. Last year I had the great idea that it would be fun to plant a carpet bed at the Welcome to Wolfville signs. It turned out that my immediate boss liked the idea, and even had a design of the iconic Cape Blomidon already to use for a project from a few years back. So last fall we went on a workshop about making carpet bedding that I blogged about and we figured out what plants to use and how many we needed and we enquired at out local nursery if they could grow them.
This spring, when we were getting ready to buy some plants for the town signs I wondered why we weren't doing the carpet bedding design. My boss said that his boss had nixed the idea as too expensive for the maintenance so we just did the usual thing and bought a lot of annual flowers to make the signs look nice. Then last week our nursery called and asked when we were planning to pick up the plants we ordered. Oops. Apparently they considered our inquiry about whether they could grow them as an order. As we had already planted the signs, and part of the plant material was to be supplied by colleagues at the Halifax Public Gardens, we couldn't actually use them for their original intended purpose, but we did have to use them.
On Wednesday we found a spot in town and had a go at a spur of the moment design. I drew upon my years of watching my mother draw out lines to make patterns on the borders of her quilts. I think when it fills in, you will be able to see the double helix better, but I took a photo now because it may get vandalized before it fills in. There are some gaps that, had we planned this, would be planted, but as we really didn't want them anyway, we didn't want to spend any more money on this snafu. Plus they were a special order (sort of) from the nursery, so there were no more to be had in any case. If you look at it from the long side, it looks like 5 cats eyes staring back at you.

Only YOU Can Prevent Fires

Life is what happens when you aren't blogging. OK. Quicky post on how I became a volunteer firefighter.
Ummm, no not really. But I know some volunteer firefighters, does that count?
Last Tuesday it was hot and dry here and windy too. Even though the week before it was torrential rain, the mulch at the new town centre garden was completely dry. This spring the irrigation drip line was heaved up and visible so we put a lot more bark mulch on top trying to hide it, but this means that when it is hot and dry, even though the soil beneath is wet from the irrigation, the mulch stays dry. The town centre square is right next to a bus stop, where people smoke cigarettes until the last possible moment before they board the bus. Are you getting the picture yet? Last Tuesday we got called twice about the garden being on fire. The first time we just used a small bucket of water to put out the smoldering bits and had a laugh with the commissionaire who managed the parking at the centre.
The second time we came equipped with an actual fire hose and hooked up to the fire hydrant and hosed it down for an hour. Do I have a great job or what? How many people other than firefighters can say that they regularly open a fire hydrant for work? Anyhoo, I always think an episode like this is just another piece of street theatre. I treat such public displays like I'm on stage, because you know people are watching. People on the street at open air cafes, at the bus stop, getting in and out of their cars in the parking lot are the audience. I make a production everything from getting out the hose and finding the pipe wrench to carefully avoiding spraying people waiting for the bus and rolling the hose up and putting it all away. Just my little performance to educate the public on the hazards of smoking and not properly butting out their cancer sticks. Do you think they get it? Nope, we had another fire Wednesday night, which the actual Volunteer Fire Brigade had to answer. There were flames. Smokey the Gardener says, "Only You can Prevent Garden Fires."

Pictures for my Adoring Fans

Might I just point out that if I'm too busy to blog, I'm probably too busy to take pictures of what I am doing and post them on the internet?
None the less, here are the requested photos of Garden Stakes and KFROGS mugs. The garden stakes are 1" wide and about 12" long and I didn't sell a single one on Sunday, go figure. I guess the crowd that runs charity marathons doesn't garden.
This is a photo of the KFROGS mugs before the glaze kiln. The shape is inspired by a Hannah McAndrew mug that I recently acquired (Although her's are much nicer.) They are about 4" tall and 3" wide at the top. This is after the glaze, which was disappointing. Some were clearer that others but none remained as crisp as they look in the first picture. Still, we sold 8 and I donated 4 to their Chinese Auction as well as half the proceeds of those sold so KFROGS got at least an extra $60 for my efforts.
I did also sell 5 bowls and a coil pitcher, which somewhere I might have pictures of, but you will have to wait for those because life still appears to be as busy as ever. Stay tuned, because next time I'll tell you about how I became a volunteer firefighter, an accidental garden designer and I will also tell you why stealing a 15 foot swimming pool out of your neighbour's backyard is probably not a good idea.

Madly Dogpaddling to Stay Afloat

No, I'm not dead. Just busy, busy, busy.
Almost there. My first craft show outing as part of the KFROGS Day for Global Change is this Sunday June 13th from 9-6 at the Look Off. I threw mugs specific to this fundraising event. They were bisque fired today while I went to work; thanks to my personal kiln technician AKA The Sweetie. They will be glazed tomorrow and fired Friday (we hope.)
I don't have as much stuff as I would like to take. Much of what I hoped would be great from the last glaze kiln turned out crappy instead. The main two ideas for this show, the plant stakes and the mugs seem OK.
The weather forecast waffles between Sun and Rain for Sunday. I'm not made of sugar (or that other substance that starts with an Ess) and rain won't hurt my pots, but I did buy a beach umbrella today which I figure will be useful for both possibilities.
Meanwhile, the garden is growing without me, but all the seedlings in my greenhouse which should have been planted weeks ago, are being eaten by squirrels. I have no basil or tomatoes left. They even ate the marigolds and cannas if you can believe it. The fruit trees are doing well, except the peach that always gets peach leaf curl, but I managed to spray it with seaweed extract between rain storms this week so we will see how that works. We have a plan to plant grape vines and kiwis this year, but that will wait for a few weeks yet, because after this craft fair is over I'm going to get my motorcycle out of storage and go for a ride.

Still Too Much to Do

Still desperately trying to get it all done for the June 13 craft fair. It's not going to happen, but I can dream and give it a little extra push.
This long weekend is very sunny and hot, perfect for taking the dog to the beach or something, but I'm firing a glaze kiln instead. The first of the plant stakes are in it, I did a few just to see if it really will work the way I think. They came out of the bisque kiln mostly straight and flat, so I think it will be OK.
I bought a new kiln a couple weekends ago off Kijiji. Yes, that makes 4 if you are counting. It is the same size and make as my large kiln, but in much better shape and it has a working kiln sitter and came with shelves. It was the shelves that interested me. I needed more for the large kiln, and to buy them new would have cost more than what I paid for the used kiln. I thought at first I would sell the other one, if I can, but since it is the same size I could try adding a section from the old one into the new one as a dummy to make a taller kiln. Do I need a taller kiln? Not really, but maybe in the future I will.
Might as well face it I'm addicted to kilns.

Burning the Candle at Both Ends

If a candle had three ends I'd be burning all three. Hmmmm, I guess a candle with three ends would look like a tricorn hat. At any rate, these days my blog posting has been a bit thin because in addition to working days now in the Parks Department, I still have my own garden to tend and I'm still taking a glaze course in Halifax one a night a week after work.
On top of this I decided to sign up for my first ever craft show which happens June 13. It is the KFROG Day for Global Change fundraiser, a local charity that raises money for youth initiatives world wide. I figure it is only a one day event, so I can probably generate enough stuff to sell by then. I also hope that it will be low key enough that I won't look too stupid next to the other craft tables.
In preparation for this I am making plant markers at night after I come home from work and do my chores in the greenhouse and around the garden. I figure plant markers are quick, easy, something that might have a mass appeal (let's hope) and I can sell them for pocket change which everyone should have if they go to a craft fundraiser. I'm focusing on herb plants for now, but we'll see how many I get done, I may try some common perennials too. Herb plants have the advantage that many of their names don't have repeating letters, which makes it easier to use my letter stamps altogether instead of trying to line them up individually. Hence I have made markers for sage, thyme and basil but not yet oregano because it has two O's. I may also cheat and just make blanks that people write on in pencil.
If June 13 sounds like loads of time, it isn't really. I'm getting maybe 15 made a night, and I still have to soften the edges once they are dry, fire and glaze them. Firing only happens on weekends so they pretty much have to be finished on the weekend before. I figure I need at least 100 of various herbs, and then there is breakage, warping and glaze disasters to account for. If my bathroom tiles are anything to go by, I will need to do at least 130 to end up with 100.