Pool Update: Wasps have discovered the pool. This morning when I went out and saw them flitting in and out of the water that pools on the cover, I figured that when I "shocked" the pool (which I do each weekend), the increase in chlorine would drive them away. No such luck. In a 15 minute period, I trapped a dozen of the buggers on top of the water with the skimmer and killed them. Then, I decide to do a little research and find that when a wasp is killed is releases a pheremone that says, "hey guys, attack!" So, I may have stepped on my own airhose there, because there were wasps in and around the pool until early evening.

Finally, a little after 6pm, I said, "forget it, I want to swim!" By then, there were only 2 or 3 wasps and they came and went. BUT the great news is that when I pulled the basket from the pump skimmer, guess what -- it was full of a dozen or more wasps and a water bug. Wahoo! The water felt wonderful by the way!

Just awhile ago, as I started writing this, 2 law enforcement cars (sheriff? police? Too dark to tell) flew down the road past my property, lights blazing and sirens blaring. A few minutes later, here comes another car, lights and sirens, followed closely by a truck whose use I couldn't quite make out in the dark. It was a smaller truck, kind of square--looked almost like a wildfire truck. Makes me nervous.

I've always wanted to have a pool, but until I moved to the ranch, could never have one because my former suburban yard a) wasn't large enough for flowers and a pool, and flowers always won! and b) it would have killed the grass and I wasn't interested in doing that.

Now that I've got the room (7 acres), and not really a "lawn" to speak of, up went the pool. I've only been in it a couple of times so far, and, surprisingly, I've so far been able to keep the chemicals pretty much in balance. There's still lots of hot weather in store for us, so I'm looking forward to spending more time in the cool water.

Let's be honest...I'm not the kind of person who works from dawn to dusk on the weekends during the summer. I like lots of downtime to read, watch TV, surf the Internet, bird watch. But this 7 acres is beating me...there is so much to do outdoors just for minimal upkeep like cutting the grass, weed eating, and irrigating, what chance is there that minimal indoor chores will get done, or that there will be time for fun outdoor projects at the new place like making flower beds or planting the bushes I've been buying.

I'm having serious doubts about my ability to keep up with this place on my own, let alone have any fun at it.