My nephew, Matthew, is spending a a few days with us on his way from Boston to DC. He finished his first year at MIT (and is a Phi Sig – so will live in the same house I did when I went to school). We roped him into walking in the Ledyard Memorial Day Parade yesterday with Susanna’s preschool. This morning he took the train to NYC for a day trip, and I did a short walk around the waterfront after his train departed. Here are a few pictures from this weekend.

Last year, our stock tank pool started to rust. Early in the season it wasn’t too bad, but by mid-summer it was unusable. We (I) decided to try to paint the inside. We used vinylester gel coat with the hope that it would stick to the galvanized steel. It didn’t. We turned the pool over this spring and found the gelcoat peeling off. Susanna did what we should have done last year. She looked on the internet and found a solution – get a pool liner. In hindsight, that was a way better plan than the gelcoat. We ordered a pool liner a few weeks ago and installed it today.

It took some time to make sure we got the wrinkles out of the liner as the pool filled up, but it is a significant improvement over the gelcoat and rusty steel. Maybe next year we will add some insulation under the outside of the pool liner and try to extend the season.

As the pool filled, I took time to reorganize the pool heater. The heater is just a black hose that uses the pressure of the pool pump to circulate water. Over the past few years we just curled the hose up on the lawn. It was a pain to mow, and probably less efficient gaining heat. I ran the hose to the back fence and ran straight sections of the hose back and forth along the fence where it should be in the sunlight most of the day. I did lose probably 20% of the hose length as I cut it into usable pieces. I may add another 50 feet of black hose later this year if we want to extend the season later into the fall, but I’ll see how well this works first.

On Saturday I was able to finish installing all the boards that I had milled for the ceiling. I finished all the white pine that I had on hand, and it only made it about half of the way across the porch. It was a lot of work for only half of the ceiling, but it looks good. It is a big improvement over the previous ceiling.

I need to order some fresh boards and let them dry a few weeks before milling the next batch. In the meantime, I’ll start on rebuilding the front stairs. Susanna broke up the old concrete pad that was in front of the stairs today. This weekend if I have time, I’ll pour a new concrete pad for the stairs to land on.

Sunday was Swedish School for Susanna and Izzy. I normally skip the 2+ hour drive each way to New Rochelle, NY and get a day to myself. But Sunday was also Mother’s Day, volunteered to drive; that way Susanna would get a break from her twice a month commute and relax for the drive. While they were at school (Susanna as a teacher, Izzy as a student), I went to Pelham Bay Park and did a short hike. It was a beautiful day out, and the park had a good crowd. At least it was early enough in the season that parking was free.