“If at first, you don’t succeed” is a phrase that most of us know, and some of us have used. This post is about our attempt to provide and effective cover for our above ground pool during the winter.
The first year the first year we had the pool it came with a cover. It was basically a big round tarp, the size of the pool and included a wire that surrounded it, and could be tightened. This was relatively successful, except we did not take the ladder out and that left a gap.
The second year I took out the ladder. However, for one reason or another, we did not get the wire, taken off and put a bit of a tarp, ended up about a foot underwater, and filled with leaves it was, as you imagine difficult to get out without making a mess.
By the third year by the third year the tarp was shot. We tried replacing it with just a big tarp and no wire to go around. This was an absolute failure for two reasons. One, with nothing to keep the tarp tight. It just filled up with water and leaves. Two, for reasons unknown the pool, just lost water and by the time we were ready to open it up again for the next summer there was only about a foot of water and a ton of leaves and Pineneedles. It was very difficult to clean.
The fourth year was the worst disaster. I had this brain child of an idea that if we placed some 12 foot boards I had and squared up the round pool and then put 6 foot boards I had kitty corner to the others they would make an even smaller area, we foolishly felt the gravity would just hold these boards in place. Wrong! Instead, the board slipped down and ripped the liner. It cost us $1000 to replace the liner and have it installed.
So this year we’ve come up with another plan. You can see the picture. We bought seven rolls of plastic fencing. We stapled one in to the fence next to the pool. Then we strong wire across the pool in three places. Stretched the fencing over the top and then tied it down to tent spikes on the other side. And we will have the seven strips together with rope.
I might add that we had a terrible time trying to tighten the wire. We thought we could do it with a come along. However, I come along, is designed to pull something and when you reach the place you want it, you unhook it we discovered the hard way that when you’re trying to pull wire tight and you’ve got to attach it at both ends there doesn’t seem to be any way to, attach the second end.
On the other hand, watching YouTube videos, we found a way to tighten the wire by simply grabbing it with a pair of pliers and twisting I think in it. To me, it defied logic however, it seems to of worked.
The plan is for this to hold up at least through the season and maybe through the summer. As leaves and Pine needles collect, we plan to blow them off with our trusty Ryobi leaf blower.
So I might’ve titled this, “if it first or second or third or fourth or fifth, you don’t succeed….?
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