Wednesday, July 30, 2008

souris in my pool

A Problem at the Pool, I need Agatha Christy

You know what they say " a friend in need is a pain in the bum" well that’s not always the case, my friend Tate has a small handicap which means his mobility is a little impaired and a few years ago he (actually it was his mother the late and much lamented June who I "nicknamed drippy" as she was always asking me to fix her leaks) who asked if I would construct a pool for him. I explained that I was no professional and only helped friends build their own pools. Well Tate was in no shape to pick up a shovel or push a wheelbarrow so with a little help from my friends we duly build a 10m x 5m pool with a special entrance which Tate and I designed specifically for him. It had a nice Seahorse emblem at the bottom. and was a concrete construction with a tiled finish. It turned out very well and a very grateful Tate now uses it every day that weather permits.



This year Tate called me to discuss a problem with the pool. I wasn’t doing much so I said I’d visit and see the problem first hand. On arriving he explained that he had a problem with Souris (mice). The problem was that they kept getting into the pool, whether they were using it for leisure or just to have their equivalent of a pint who can say, unfortunately once in the pool they couldn’t get out and they would swim around and around until they died. The skimmers would then suck the mice up and they would go into the filter nets. Tate couldn’t get down to the skimmers to remove them so they would accumulate until the pool cleaners or a mate turned up, whichever was the sooner. Now on a good day Tate’s a reasonably nice chap, considering he’s from the Devon, and he didn’t like the thought of all these rodents dieing so he was seeking a serious answer to a serious problem.

After a short deliberation I explained that as I saw it there was a choice of three simple solutions. The choices were: 1. Get some cats and hope they remove the problem at source (it would take an awful lot of cats and who would look after them in the winter). 2. Build a mouse proof barrier around the pool (not very practical) 3. Put a ramp in so that the mice could escape the watery death once they’d had their drink and freshened up.
Yer" he said in his Devonshire accent, “Ow bis I gwaina doun?" which roughly translated means How am I going to do that? I explained that it would be easy; all that was required was to attach a polystyrene float to a short piece of wood and attach the other end to the pool entry ladder. "Is’n gwain a wurk?" (Will it work?) I was confident that it would. The next time he had some friends over they built the aforementioned Souris ramp and believe it or not it works a treat. Since the beginning of May not one mouse has met with a watery end, there have however been 2 frogs who have not managed to fathom out how to use the ladder, but then we all know how dumb frogs can be.






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