Doggie Pool Area

The weather has been weird all year. It got to the 90’s in February, then rain and hail. After a week of hot weather in the upper 90’s to 100’s with evening/night temps never dropping into the 60’s, we awoke to low 50’s and a breezy beautiful morning.

We decided the pool-area was looking a little dilapidated. The staked-down astroturf panels (6’x8′ @ $20 each) from Home Depot had weeds growing up between them, and the umbrella stands were awkward and heavy to move – and I didn’t want have to mow the weeds… So we decided to expand the pool area and cover the weeds, and build-in the umbrella stands, and off I went to social-distance at Home Depot.Six more squares of astroturf, sixteen 10-inch 3/8″ carriage bolts to use as corner stakes, some grommets as bezels on the stakes, and an eight foot piece of fence-pipe.

After staking out the fake grass an re-using two pieces, and then filling the pool, I measured to the center of the pipe and cut it across at an angle so it had a pointy end, good for pounding into the ground.

My little sledge hammer was a bit on the small side so I used an old, 15-lb. dumbell to hammer the pipe into the ground, and voila: umbrella stands. It’s also a reminder of my Dad and growing up. In our front-yard as a kid, the flag-pole holder was a piece of pipe sunk flush into the ground so that the blades of push-mower I used to cut the lawn (and earn my $1.00 weekly allowance) would roll right over it. On days when we put the flag out, it fit right into the pipe sunk into the ground. Thanks Dad, I miss you guys.