Last year, opening my pool was a disaster. Not only did our dog put a giant hole in our winter cover a day after it was installed, but we had one of the worst Michigan winters in recent history. The following spring, we found much of that brutal winter at the bottom of the pool.

While this past winter wasn't as bad, it still packed quite a punch. By that, I mean that some of the cinder block supports (dog-proofing) we used ended up in the pool. When we uncovered it yesterday, it was much cleaner that the previous year, but the water level was lower than it should have been... there was no water whatsoever in the shallow end. Logic dictates that there must be at least one hole, but my gut tells me there are more.

We did find that it's much easier to clean out the deep end when you have the dry shallow end to work with. We were able to move things to such as leaves and other year debris to the dry end of the pool and shovel them in to a waste bin. That was much easier than lifting load after load of wet, heavy leaves up and out of the pool with just the net.

Our next step will be scrubbing the liner, removing any algae, dirt and other buildup. Then we'll try to locate any leaks and repair them before we start to refill the pool. At that point, we should be able to kick on the filter and be up and running. As tedious as all of that sounds, it will be nothing compared to what we had to deal with. In the meantime, come on in!  The water's... gone!

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