I could not have found this blog at a better time. I’m preparing for a 5 day meditation retreat in Upstate NY over the New Year. I did this same retreat last year, and it was beyond rewarding. However, I just started getting the Buddhist butterflies at the shock to the system I know I’ll go through again. It ain’t easy to go from a New Yorker working in television everyday, to waking up at 5 am with monks and nuns for a 45 minute meditation session;-)

This entry reminded me of what a difference a few mindful minutes a day can make in your life. And here I am getting to do that for 5 days straight in an amazing environment! Woo hoo, I can do this.

Good stuff here…happy holidays!
-Sarah

Warmly,
Nancy

Ionization is the best current means of replacing chlorination in
pools. There are copper ionizers and there are salt ionizers. Since
the salt ionizer we had was so difficult to understand and having to
dump bags of salt frequently became a real chore since they are very
heavy to haul. There are several models but I decided to go with the
copper ionizer by its very simplicity and low voltage requirement.
What I found was that the pH monitoring of pool water is required of
all pools no matter what method of bacteria free water approach. This
means weekly water tests for pH (acidity and alkalinity), for calcium
(to protect pool surfaces from deterioration, as well as for copper
results.

There was one problem that I encountered every so often, the clouding
effect from dead organisms (from the treatments) which did not get
filtered out. I learned that this loss of clarity is what every pool
owner encounters even with or without chemicals. I was able to
purchase it from an American rep online. It can be found on Google.
During previous years we had pool guys taking care of the pool and
what they did not want us to know was that they were putting chlorine
tablets into our skimmer baskets without our consent til we found out
later. Since there were only few resources that provided such
alternatives to chlorination, very little was known about maintaining
pool clarity.

I found on the market an eco friendly product to remedy this: OXY
POOL. OXY POOL is a new product, I believe made in Canada. This
safely shocks any algae while coagulates all the resultant decaying
microparticles, thus aiding their entrapment within the filter and
keeping them from returning into the pool. Directions for OXY POOL
are simple and require pH check and a following filterflush to clean
out the equipment and pipes from the pool into the ground away from
the pool. No garden life is harmed or anything, and the result is a
clear pool. Such clarity results may take overnight or so as it is
alot of water to filter out. This is every pool owner’s weekly task.
It is all about balance as water is a living entity. Copper is safe
for the human body. Water seems soft but different from the salt
water type. The one advantage over salt water is minimum corrosion
of any metal parts around or within the pool. OXY POOL is also
excellent for winterization of the pool. There are videos on youtube
with instructions how to close or open a pool and simply replace
chlorine shock with OXY POOL. Of course, pool levels have to be
lowered, all pipes flushed out with a mini pump, sealed and covered
for the winter.

Once you get the hang of this eco-safe pool care, good confidence
builds up and routine brings about ease of procedure. For the
following year, if you keep track of your purchases, you would be
able to buy these products in adequate stock quantities for the
entire season to save on all those trips to the store. To neglect any
of the above steps would otherwise be a sure guarantee of messy
disaster that would be progressively and exponentially difficult to
clean up since that algae can run out of control. Once these aquatic
organisms are killed, however advanced in growth, cloudiness returns
and you are back to cleaning the filter and all the pool water all
over again.

Weekly maintenance with this understanding of what constitutes
environmentally friendly balanced water is the real key. You’d be a
step ahead applying wise prevention measures and the pool would
remain sparkly clean all season.

Thanks.
Patrick
ptmcneill@gmail.com