Long before fancy swimming pools with perfectly clear chlorinated water, generations of children found a favorite swimming hole. Usually, a small pond or creek on someone's property (that they knew of course). Nowadays, when one mentions swimming in a natural body of water other than the ocean people look at you as if you have lost your mind. People have gotten so used to chemically treated water that they just don't realize that other water is good for swimming to and not nearly as toxic to your health. When I was a kid, my favorite swimming spot was a creek on my grandaddy's property. Seems to me like there is nothing that lends itself to childhood memories more than the local swimming hole. I got my first lessons about snakes and how to avoid them down at that creek. I learned to watch, be quiet and enjoy the sights and sounds of nature as they unfolded. Down on that creek bank talking with my grandaddy, I learned some lessons about God and about life. You don't get that in one of those sterile backyard swimming pools, where it seems as if everybody is intent on making fun happen rather than enjoying what is offered. Well, I have discovered over the weekend, quite by accident that there is an alternative to those sterile pools. It actually has been the main basis of pool installations in Europe for quite some time, but we here in the States still insist on toxic water to swim in. The option is a natural pool like this:
or this one:
These pools are awesome as they are a chemical free, closed habitat, using biological filters (plants). Not only are they functional swimming holes and habitats for all sorts of pond critters, but they are beautiful to boot. We sorta have one of these, just not quite so nice looking. You see we have the first concrete swimming pool ever built in our county. It was built in the 1920s. However, sometime in the early 1980s the pump quit working and the owner decided to let it go natural. She even put some fish in it. We now have resident brim and a turtle. It is still a beautiful pond, but we would love to clear up the water some and clean it up, so we are looking at getting some plants and creating a biofilter area for the water to be filtered through the plant area. My children already love to play in the pond and frankly it is nice to step in after working in the hot garden which surrounds it. We already have some great bog plants for free down in our watershed, all we have to do is move em. Check out these pools, they are so great and could be built yourself.
Woodhouse Natural Pools
How to Build a Natural Swimming Pool
4 comments:
I would try windmill powered aeration for your pond. It's not terribly expensive and very little upkeep. A lot of people in our are a have them and it seems to keep there ponds very clean and clear.
Yes, or solar pumps. The thing with these pools is that their is not the need for the typical swimming pool pump. The idea is to move the water very slowly through the plant filtration area to clean it and reoxygenate it.
Lovely and I'd love to have one, but here it wouldn't work, to many misqitoes(sp?) they'd love a pond to birth their young! It's bad enough living on the river here. In about another month we won't be able to stay outside to enjoy our patio without being eaten alive, literally!
If you can’t do the cleaning of your pool alone, then it would be a great idea to hire private individuals to do the cleaning. In this way, you are assured that your pool will be cleaned up well since they exactly know how to do the task.
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