We still had part of the Sam's Club/Walmart gift cards leftover, and I found this above-ground swimming pool on sale at Walmart. It is 42" deep, and 15' across, so it will be quite a bit larger than the old one we have had for several years now. It was regularly almost $350; but was on sale for $200, so a good savings, and should last us a long time. We have been enclosing in the area outside of the back door to be more private with the bamboo fencing along the front, and the back part of the yard is pretty private anyway; so this is where we are going to set up the new swimming pool. Swimming is (for me) a part of our fitness plan to take care of our health, and improve our physical condition, so this is for more than just enjoyment, although that is certainly a large part of the reason to get the new pool. I am not physically able to climb up the ladder and down the other side to get in and out of this deep of a pool; but Bobby will build a small raised deck that I can get on, and then use the ladder to step into the pool. We go to the fitness center every other day and I swim there; but with the larger pool, we can also swim more at home, too. We are still deciding what to do with the old , smaller pool. Possibly, we can use that to raise some backyard fish in. I have seen articles where people raised catfish using just a 55 gallon drum; so if that is possible, then the swimming pool should be even better.
That sounds nice. I wouldn't mind having a pool, but I'd probably need something very easy to set up and maintain. Does it come with a cover? I remember you mentioned before y'all had considered farming catfish or some other sort of fish in the yard, and it sounded interesting. I would love to have a koi pond someday, although people I've known here who've had them have had issues with the egrets and herons fishing in their ponds. I kept some small goldfish in my patio pond (not currently set up) at one point, but raccoons got on the patio and killed them.
The description says that the pool comes with the filter, pump, cover, and ladder, plus maintainence kit and ground cover mat. So there should be just about everything that we need to set up and operate this pool. The old pool is out in the back yard and under a huge tree, so it is harder to keep the leaves and debris out of it; but for catfish, it should be perfect. Even in the heat of summer, the pool was cool last year, and the shade makes the water darker and more private for the fish. Now, it would be nice to have all of those frogs that laid eggs in our pool out in Florence, since here the fish would love to eat the tadpoles ! (We might have to go fishing at the little spring/pond down the road and see if we can also catch some frogs. ) And if there are mosquito larva, the fish will eat those, too; so moquitoes and bugs would help supplement for some of the food. According to what I read, you drain the dirty water out of the bottom of the tank each week, and that would be perfect for watering and feeding the garden plants and shrubs. I can just attach a hose to the bottom drain and run the water out onto whatever part of the garden needs it, and then refill the water in the pool. Since you only drain off a little from the very bottom each time, the chlorine in the water that I would add would still be very diluted and would soon evaporate in any case. We still have to learn more about how to set this up; but I do think that raising fish can be a viable option for us. If not, we can just put the pool on craigslist and give it away to someone who wants one. http://www.geeksofpets.com/how_5745708_raise-above-ground-swimming-pool.html
Would you be raising the fish as a food source for y'all only, or would you try to sell some of it? I don't know how regulations are there, but it seems if you're going to sell any type of food here, there are many hoops to jump through. We'd considered selling cake pops at our garage sales in the past, but apparently those would also be regulated, so it wasn't worth it. If your old pool is still fully functioning and you decide to sell it, you could probably make at least a few dollars selling it in the Facebook sales groups. Although they seem to have died down here in my area, apparently they're still going strong in other areas.
If we raise fish in the pool out back, it would be just for our own personal use, and not to sell any, @Diane Lane . As you mentioned, even trying to sell homemade cookies at your own yard sale can get you in trouble nowdays. We used to see churches and other groups having bake sales almost all of the time; but with all of the new laws and restrictions, that has pretty much stopped, too. Sometimes people do still sell homemade goodies and cold soda pop when they are having a yard sale, and I imagine that most of this goes by un-noticed from the authorities, as long as it is not happening every weekend at the same place. I have been looking at the possibility of raising tilapia, too. Apparently, they are not nearly as hardy as catfish are; so that would probably only work in the spring and summer when the temperature was warm enough for them. Another possibility is perch, although I do not like eating those very well. Actually, trout are my favorite, but I don't think that they would live unless they had flowing water, so catfish will probably be what we try first. We have had the old pool for several years now, and haven't tried using it this year, although it was all working fine last fall. Bobby wanted to move it up from the shady area under the trees, to the back courtyard, which is much closer to the house, and private now with the bamboo screening out front. When I found the one at Walmart for almost half price, and much larger than the old one, we talked it over and decided that it is something that we would use a lot and get our money's worth out of it. I might be able to sell the old one; but since it is not worth much, I would probably just give it away to some family that needs one, if we decide not to try raising fish.
I love to swim. I am lucky enough to live in a lake community..so just a hop, skip and jump from here is a large freshwater lake. I swim alot in the summer, but not quite as much as I used to, because I find I am kind of getting bored with it. A pool would be nice..cause I wouldn't have to jump through any hoops getting to the water. Oh well, for another day...it is gonna happen now!
Swimming being as good a form of exercise that it is, 'tis unfortunate I never developed much swimming ability; I sink like a rock. My wife, OTOH, was born and raised on a lake in Northern Indiana, and swam nearly every day except in winter, of course. She misses the water so much, she often slips into the Colorado River here!
I love swimming but haven't been swimming in a long time. Here, both the community pool and the only reasonably decent swimming places are filled with kids during the couple months of summer when it's warm enough to swim. We have one pond that I would swim in once in a while but you could only swim for about a half hour before the leeches found me. Seemingly, they would be on the other side of the pond, but come over to the swimming area when they detected movement. Fortunately, the water was clean enough that I could see them coming. A few years ago though, the town spent some money and upgraded the pond, getting rid of the leeches, and adding some other amenities, and now it's filled with kids every warm day in the summer. I would much rather have the leeches.
Since we have been going to the fitness center, and I have been swimming several times a week and doing the water exercises, my strength and my health have both improved. This pool is actually part of our fitness/health program, and it will enable us to swim every day this summer. Obviously, we could also go to the fitness center every day; but with the pool right here, we can just jump in and swim any time of day that fits into our schedule, and for the amount of time that we want to swim. Bobby uses all of the equipment at the fitness center; so he doesn't swim; but with the pool at home, he can now do both. When you look on youtube, there are all kinds of water exercise videos on there that a person could do in their backyard pool. Even though (for us) this was a big expenditure, it will pay off in health benefits for both of us, and should last for many years , given proper care. Plus, @Ken Anderson , there are no leeches or kids........ A very good reason for having a backyard swimming pool !
Gee, a swimming pool with 15 feet in length? That's like having a real swimming pool. I bet you can do backstroke in that pool. And for $200, wow, what a steal. But on second thought, that $200 is big money here. However, that's still a fairly large swimming pool so it's still worth the cost. What we have here is a portable pool that is 8 feet in length. It can fit 4 adults for soaking only. We had used it 2 years ago and have been forgotten during last years' and this year's summer because we had frequently been to beach resorts. Besides, it is not easy to set up for we had to inflate the wall with enough air. The manual pumping takes about 10 to 15 minutes of hard labor. After the setup, the filling of water takes more than 30 minutes. It's a lot of work but it's worth it when the weather is too hot for comfort.