Hey everyone! Well the pool season is winding down for me; we're back to school and work and the weather is cooling down. It was a very trouble free pool season thanks to my friends here at TFP. So now I have a new question for all of you. What are some of your suggestions for shutting down a pool for the winter. Last winter we had the coldest on record in Chicago and quite a bit of snow, too. How did past pool owners survive it and any tips for me. We have never closed up a pool before and were just wondering about some ideas to make the process go smoothly and with very little trouble over the winter. How much snow can a pool cover hole before you have to try and scrape it off? Should I bother with pillows? I read the suggestions TFP gave for shutting down; that sounded simple enough, but then I read the threads of past pool owners and I got a little nervous; buckling pools and trying to chip away at frozen pools does not sound like fun. So.... any advice is welcome. Thanks again!