Not much to write home about this week. It was the most beautiful week of weather we have had so far this warm season. Most of the days found us in the upper 60’s to mid 70’s for highs with ample sunshine. It has ramped up the mosquito population to a very high level, but with some bug dope, they are not much of a bother. We never did have blackflies this season, but I hear that the nasty little buggers were out elsewhere.
Everything is pretty much fully filled out and now we just sit back and enjoy the different wildflowers that bloom throughout the summer. Our cherry tree bloomed about 2 weeks ago and is now in the process of filling the fruit. The fruit will be ripe beginning around the 4th of July and I am hoping for a bumper crop, as it is a sweet cherry tree.
My buddy and I did get the pool put up on Wednesday and then the water tanker came Thursday to fill it up. It took 2 loads to get it almost full. The water was around 4″ from the full level and I have been using our water out of the spigot to fill it the rest of the way. That is a slow process, as I cannot do that and have decent water pressure in the house, so I have to just squeeze in times when I can use the spigot. The water from the spigot does not come out all that fast, which also leads to the slow going. I could probably get away with letting it go overnight, but it would be my luck that suddenly the flow rate increased and it over filled the pool and flooded a portion of the yard.
The water was also very dirty and contained a lot of organic matter, coming from the lakes. The first load of water came from the Hubbell boat launch and the second from the White City boat launch. I’ve been doing a lot of shocking, filtering, vacuuming and skimming of the water and it is almost crystal clear. When the pool was first filled, you could not even seen the bottom! I am hoping that when we do the filling next year, we can just draw the water from Lake Superior. I have a couple of places that could be used for that process. I know it will still not be as crystal clear as pool water, but it will be a whole lot cleaner! Plus I am not fond of the water from the Hubbell boat launch or anywhere from Torch Lake. There is a certain level of contamination from the mining era, we are told that the levels of contamination are below anything dangerous to humans, but I still do not swim in the Torch Lake. The good thing is that the sand filter will remove any of the heavy metal contamination from the water and the water from the White City boat launch do not contain any of that contamination.
The week ahead looks like it will have some decent pool weather, with 70’s and low 80’s just about every day except for tomorrow. That will work out about perfect, as I should be able to get the pool filled up completely and will probably have to shock it one more time before it will be “gin clear”, the way I like it.
I guess that about covers it for this one. Have a great week and happy Flag Day two days early!
Good Night From the Keweenaw..
–JD