Taking down the pool, and woodland animals

Since we hadn’t opened our pool in a few summers, we decided to take it down. Or, well, my dad and I decided to take it down. My mom was a bit less enthusiastic, since she tended to use it a lot.

But, aside from my mom, no one used it very much anymore, and maintaining it would take a lot of time and money that we just don’t have available right now. So, on Wednesday and Friday, I dismantled the pool, which involved lots of unscrewing things, beating the crap out of things with a hammer, and fending off wasps and ants and collapsing sections of pool deck.

It also involved draining two or three years of muddy, mosquito- and larvae-infested water and getting covered in the rotten, decaying remains of years of fallen leaves and other muck. It not only smelled gross; it was gross.

But, smashing things was lots of fun, and I got a little color. I also met some new inhabitants of our backyard: a really cute raccoon, a chipmunk, loads of squirrels, robins and blue jays and lots of other birds, butterflies, and the biggest spider I’ve ever seen in my life. It was humongous!

The raccoon was out the other night, and was using its upturned paws to scoop up bird seed from under one of the bird feeders, cupping the seeds and putting them into its mouth. I can’t really describe it in terms that give justice to how cute it all was as I watched it from the dining room window. I think it is living in the treehouse, which is a shame, because I’m probably going to knock that down by the time the summer’s out, too. Sorry, raccoon.

All I’ve yet to see are the bunnies, the fox, and the deer, and all my old backyard friends will be back! Aww. We’ll have to host a reunion. But, the opossum and the skunk that also hang around the yard are not invited!