Pool troubles

J has learned a lot about pool maintenance in the last year of being a pool owner. He has learned how to manage and test the chlorine levels, shock the pool, clean out the filter, run the pump and set the timer for the vacuum, and backwash the pool. We've definitely had our share of pool troubles, with the vacuum breaking, the pump breaking, the water turning green with algae, etc., and our latest incident was no exception.

Every few weeks a pool needs to be back-washed- a process by which water that has gone through the pump and stored in the filter needs to be released through a hose down a special drain. So last Thursday night J and I back-washed the pool. Problem solved. However, the next morning as we were eating breakfast my two year old, who was looking out at the pool, says to me, "Mom, where's the water?" I look out the window and see this:



Yes, Lauren, where is all the water? Turns out that if you forget to close the back-wash spigot and your pool pump comes on and runs through the night, it will pump the contents of your pool down the drain. Darn.

So J received a frantic call from me, came home from work, and spent the next many hours refilling the pool, adding conditioner, soda ash, chlorine, and more DE to the filter. Lesson learned.

Now I cannot totally blame J for the incident, as at the time we back-washed the pool I was feeling sick and he took on all the night duties (kids to bed, dishes, etc.) in my place and really did just forget about the spigot. And L had the time of her life playing in, as she termed it, our "new kid pool" with no fear of drowning or going under!