It was too warm to close the pool without risk of turning it to pea soup. Well we went from almost a month of 80 something degree days and upper 50s-lower 60s nights to 52 degree days and frost at night - in one day. The front rolled in overnight and we dropped 30 degrees with 30 mile per hour NW winds gusting to 40 mph and icy rain. Wow! We had to rush and dip out leaves, brush the floor, drain below the skimmer, super shock with gallons of bleach, mix in the polyquat, get those stairs out, the winter cover on with a leaf net over it before those gale force winds knocked all the leaves off the trees and into our pool. Yikes - the rain was sideways, the wind was icy and it was a challenge but, with my trusty 16 year old Mom's helper shoulder to shoulder with me, we got it done. Draining hoses and solar panels came after we safely and securely got those covers on. Whew!!! Goodnight sweet pool - see you in the spring.

We didn't have it that bad here, but it's supposed to get down in the 40's the next couple of nights, so I jumped in tonight and plugged up the lower return. 75 degree water was bad enough, I didn't want to wait for the 60-ish degree water I'm fixin' to have here in a day or two. Looks like I'll close 'er up this weekend. Another summer in the books.

We're looking forward (not) to tomorrow's high of 74° F with a low of 49° F. The pool water tonight was 78° F, so put the solar cover on, thinking, hoping, wishing for an upturn later in the week when we might swim again. Yesterday, nearly 100 degrees outside, the water was 82 uncovered, and we had a nice long swim, anticipating the end....

Billy Joel?

I was on a plane some years ago flying to Kansas City from Minneapolis where I met an estatic woman who excitedly told me that they were moving to KC from NW Minn. Having lived through a couple of brutal winters in Kansas City in the 1980s I was surprised, to say the least. She claimed that winter in her home town came a full month earlier and stayed two months later than in "the south" (meaning KC MO.) I didn't tell her that I was headed for Phoenix.

Yep, NWMNMom,..I can hear you. I also am waaaayyy up north in minnesota and decided Sunday afternoon that it was now or never!! Jumped in the pool, at an incredibly cold 65 degrees to brush the bottom and sides of the pool. (Afterwards went to go and get in my hot tub already run and couldn't even feel if the water was hot or not,...I was a little numb!!) Kept the pump running overnight and yesterday morning when I woke up the pump motor was super loud!! Here what had happened was due to the 37 mile an hour winds we had, of course I had a TON of leaves in the pool,..thus also in my skimmer basket that had clogged so bad that water was not getting through,..pressure on pump was at zero! So I turned it off as the winds were bad all day yesterday, didn't want that happening again! Last night vacuumed again, finally added my supershock and pump has been running all night again. Time to add polyquat today and see if my new aquadoor is going to work! This Minnesota weather,...I will never get used to it, even though I was born and will probably die here. Next year I'm thinking of maybe investing in a wetsuit!!

Yep, we Minnesota and North Dakota people value our summer when we have it because it is RARE. The pool is important to remind us those 9 months out of the year when there is danger of snowfall or even possibly 50 below (before wiindchill), that we do in fact have something to look forward to. So to anyone out there any further south than me, if my pool can survive winter, yours can. Do the right things with no shortcuts and you will enjoy your pool for many summers to come, no matter how short they are.

Also in MN.. closing on thurs.. well PB is.. I am too paranoid about a pipe bursting.

I do all the prep work though.. I pay $150 for him to blow lines and put on mesh cover.

I'm a wimp! In the New Orleans area, we had a pool each summer (intex pop-up type) that was a small bathtub by mid-June.

When we moved 'north' 4 years ago, we looked into putting in an AGP, but decided that financially we were not ready.

Now I even wonder about putting one in, since the swim season is SO much shorter than in NO... to me, anything below about 84* is COLD!! I would probably have a heart attack if I jumped into 65* water without a wetsuit, and maybe even with one!!!

How do you WAY northern folks do it?

I've never lived up thataway but have friends and relations who do.

They tell me that, rumor to the contrary, there IS summer in Minnesota, every single year.

And if it comes on a weekend, they all go out for a picnic.
--paulr

Got the steps out, pool vac'ed, shocked, and covered yesterday, all in a steady rain...

The local weatherperson needs to have her AMS certificate pulled. She couldn't predict a snowfall in the artic...

I lived in waaaaaay NW Minn. from the 1st through the 6th grade. I enjoyed the winters up there then but that was then and this is now Don't miss them at all. Lived in a little town in the middle of nowhere. Hallock.

OMG, Hallock is just up the road north a way. LOL. Yep, that is the middle of no-where. You can see Canada from there - no kidding, you can eyeball Canada. At least Hallock has some people - I'm 10 miles from any of the towns, but the closest has only 364 people, 5, count em 5, Lutheran Churches. LOL - all different "denominations" that think they are better than the other one for some reason or another - but hey, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a free will offering "hotdish" fundraiser with Swedish meatballs and lefse on a Saturday.

Believe it or not, we do have summers up here - this year it was 2 weeks in September. So yes, we do get to use our pools.