The pool

 

All you people who are afraid to try something new, let me tell a story.... (I'm keeping it short and sweet)

I once bought a house, and it came with a pool. A small in ground pool, about eighteen thousand gallons. All my friends thought it was nice. I told them I was going to turn it into a pond, they all laughed and said I was crazy. I told them to come over anytime and swim and enjoy it. No body ever did... Six months went by....

So I mentioned again, I going to turn it into a pond, “You're crazy,” is what I heard, “then we can't use it...” So nobody used it, another six months went by....

Well then came the big storm and blew thing all around, filling the pool with limbs and various debris. What a mess... The lights where out, the water was out for quite awhile.

In this big mess I saw opportunity to do what I had been longing to do.... I had kept an aquarium, a nice one, I new how it worked... I was filling the pool from a well, so treated city water wasn't going to be a problem, so I sat down and laid out a plan.

I just let it sit, so all the pool chlorine would dissipate. I went to work on the filter system, which didn't take much, mainly a good cleaning, with the introduction of some batting. After about two week of sitting, I filled it back up and started filtering, stirring it from time to time to get all the fine dirt out of it...

Then I introduced some lily pads and other plants to control the algae growth, and continued filtering for another two weeks.

Now I have a friend, who was coming over pretty regular for coffee telling me I was nuts, and all the things that were going to go wrong... I kept telling him, it's an eighteen thousand gallon aquarium, once it's set up, it pretty much maintains itself, just add to and filter the water.

So while I am arguing with my buddy on the state of my sanity, I get creative with some pcv pipe and make a fountain and a small water fall.

So.....after about a month of prepping, I put a couple of Wal-Mart goldfish in it. What do you know, they didn't die.. So after a couple more weeks I got some koi and through in there. They didn't die.

Then one morning, there are rings around the pool, back ones, all the way around the pool. Looking a little closer, it's eggs, thousands upon thousands of eggs. Fish eggs..? But they are not quite in the water, not quite.

Well this is a mess.... then I thought, leave it along, see what happens... After a couple of days, I had a pool full of tad-poles, it was amazing... The fish were eating tad-poles.... After a few more days there were tiny little frogs everywhere, hopping all over the place....Then after another couple of days, they all hopped away.

In the months that followed, I had friends, in their fifties, in their sixties, one fellow who was seventy-five on their bellies, petting the fish in the pond.... They were getting in the water and swimming with them, with tiny baby fish eating the dead skin off of them, telling me I was a genus.... After months of telling me I was crazy.

So..... If you have an idea.... and everybody thinks you're crazy... So what...

The fellows who were telling me I was crazy, were well educated, well rounded airline pilots.... But they didn't know squat about an aquarium, and only one of them had had a pool.

Build it, and they will come...

George Henry Nichols

April 9^th 2025

 

BARB-WIRE BILL

At dawn of day the white land lay all gruesome

like and grim,

When Bill McGee he says to me: "We've got to do it

Jim.

"We've got to make Fort Laird quick. I know the

rivers bad,

"But oh the little woman's sick .... why! don't

you savvy lad?"

And me! Well, yes, I must confess it wasn't hard to

see

Their little family group of two would soon be one of

three

And so I answered, careless-like: "Why, Bill! you don't

suppose

"I'm scared of that there 'babbling brook'? Whatever

you say --- goes."

A real live man was barb-wire Bill, with insides copper-

lined;

For "barb-wire" was the brand of "hooch" to which

he most inclined.

They knew him far; his igloos are on Kittiegazuit

strand

They knew him well, the tribes who dwell within the

Barren Land.

From Koyokuk to Kuskoquim his fame was

everywhere;

And he did love, all life above, that little Julie

Claire,

The lithe, white slave-girl he had bought for seven

hundred skins'

And taken to his wickiup to make his moccasins.

We crawled down to the river bank and feeble folk

were we,

That Julie Claire from God knows where, and Barb-wire

Bill and me.

From shore to shore we heard the roar the heaving

ice-floes make,

And loud we laughed, and launched our raft and

followed in their wake.

The river swept and seethed and leapt, and caught us

in it's stride;

And on we hurled amid a world that crashed on every

side.

With sullen din the banks caved in; the shore-ice lanced

the stream;

The naked floes like spooks arose, all jiggling and agleam.

Black anchor-ice of strange device shot upward from its

bed,

As night and day we cleft our way, and arrow like we sped.

But "Faster still!" cried Barb-wire Bill, and looked the

live-long day

In dull despair at Julie Claire, as white like death she

lay.

And sometimes he would seem to pray and sometimes

seem to curse,

And bent above, with eyes of love, yet ever she grew

worse.

And as we plunged and leapt and lunged, her face was

plucked with pain,

And I could feel his nerves of steel a-quiver at the

strain.

And in the night he griped me tight as I lay fast

asleep:

"The river's kicking like a steer .... run out the

forward sweep!

"that's Hell-gate Canyon right ahead; I know of old

its roar,

"And .... I'll be damned! the ice is jammed!

We've got to make the shore."

With one wild leap I gripped the sweep. The night was

black as sin.

The float-ice crashed and ripped and smashed, and stunned

us with its din.

And near and near, and clear and clear I heard the

canyon boom;

And swift and strong we swept along to meet our awful

doom.

And as with dread I glimpsed ahead the death that waited

there,

My only thought was of the girl, the little Julie

Claire;

And so, like demon mad with fear, I panted at the

oar,

And foot by foot, and inch by inch, we worked the raft

ashore.

The bank was staked with grinding ice, and as we scraped

and crashed,

I only knew one thing to do, and through my mind it

flashed:

Yet while I groped to find the rope, I heard Bill's savage

cry:

"That's my job lad! It's me that jumps. Ill snub

this raft of die!"

I saw him leap, I saw him creep, I saw him gain the

land;

I saw him crawl, I saw him fall, then run with rope in

hand.

And then the darkness gulped him up, and down we

dashed once more,

And nearer, nearer drew the jam, and thunder-like its

roar.

Oh God! all's lost .... from Julie Claire there

came a wail of pain,

And then --- the rope grew sudden taught, and quivered at

the strain;

It slacked and slipped, it whined and gripped, and oh, I

held my breath!

And there we hung and there we swung right in the

jaws of death.

A little strand of hempen rope, and how I watched it

there,

With all around a hell of sound, and darkness and

despair;

A little strand of hempen rope, I watched it all

alone,

And somewhere in the dark behind, I heard a woman

moan;

And somewhere in the dark ahead I heard a man cry

out,

Then silence, silence fell, and mocked my hollow

shout.

And yet once more from out the shore I heard that cry

of pain,

A moan of mortal agony, then all was still

again.

Than night was hell with all the frills, and when the

dawn broke dim,

I saw the lean and level land, but never a sign of

him.

I saw the flat and frozen shore of hideous

device,

I saw a long drawn strand of rope that vanished through

the ice.

And on that treeless, rockless shore I found my partner

--- dead.

No place there was to snub the raft, so --- he had served

instead;

And with the rope lashed round his waste, in last

defiant fight,

He'd thrown himself beneath the ice, that closed and

gripped him tight;

And there he'd held us back from death, as fast in death

he lay....

Say, boys! I'm not the pious brand, but --- I just tried

to pray.

And then I looked to Julie Claire, and sore abashed

was I,

For from the robes that covered her, I --- heard --- a ---

baby --- cry ....

Thus Love conqueror of death, and life for life was

given;

And though no saint on earth, d'ye think --- Bill's squared

himself with heaven?

ROBERT W. SERVICE