The Pool

I love freebies.

This summer, we have been plagued by heat.

Long, sweaty stretches of heat. Miserable heat.

Usually, the grands and I break out the little plastic wading pool. The three of us barely fit anymore, which is just as well. Since it bit the dust. We had one good use early on, then crack. A goner.

Enter said friend from the post yesterday about getting a free book. While on a rubber stamping trip to her home, she remembered that she had a pool.

An inflatable, bigger, deeper, plastic pool. For free.

Granted there were no guarantees on seaworthiness. But it was worth a try.

After picking off snails and earwigs (it was in storage, after all, in a damp climate), I popped it in the trunk. Upon arriving home, we spread it out to dry and wait for the grands to appear.

Oh, joy! A POOL.

Totally excited, they didn't care if we needed to add dish soap to help scrub the bottom while playing. Actually, I almost lost the whole bottle of concentrated Dawn when the younger decided to help speed things along.

The pool, large enough for even Papa to join us, works perfectly! Well, the sprayer umbrella thing is broken, but since sister is afraid of it, no biggy.

Summer, I can actually bear your heat.

I can even do some gardening. As long as I am in my Nana swimsuit and can take cool-off breaks, it's all good.

Thanks, friend.

Transformed Patio

You can just see the brick patio beneath the window of the future pottery shed.

The long-term plan for the little white shed out back is to repair it into a pottery shed - an art studio, if you will. French doors, brick patio, pergola, running water (almost plumbed in), kiln, shelves. A space where I can play in the dirt, make a mess, and create to my hearts' delight.

This summer, a short-term plan evolved.

Due to our extended spate of 90-100 degree days, the grands had much activity with water - pool, water table, buckets, and so on. But my mud loving grandson was frustrated by Nana's crammed garden beds and lack of dirt for digging and mudding.

The grands, along with Nana and Papa, made a trip to Lowe's for play sand. Say what? A cost of less than $4, and you would think we had purchased a RT pass for the entire family to Disneyland. The sand was a hit; for hours and hours, the sand was loved. To make it work, we had to use the little round plastic swimming pool as a sand box. No big. Both grands had a ball.

And then the temps rose to over 100. Our pool was full of sand. We made a race to a local department store (this was in July, mind you) and they were sold out of pools. Amazing. Still almost 2 months of water fun ahead. No pools.

Back in the yard, desperate for a sand box AND a wading pool, we eyed the brick patio in front of my future pottery shed.

Hmmm. Rearrange a few bricks, build up the edge, dump in the sand, transformation complete...Fantastico!

Shade, flowers, dirt, sand, water, feeze-pops (her words, not mine) & contentment!

For the meantime, we have a sandbox made of bricks. And a wading pool.

And VERY happy grands.

A bonus discovery? Dig down deep enough through the sand and there is dirt!
Dirt plus water plus sand equals one mama-jama mud pit. Dirty and happy kids.