Hello, I got back from talking to one of the people we had out and they said from their testing there was 1.8 ppm iron and 510 ppm TDS (wondering what made the results differ 290 ppm between the pool and water softener company test?). About the manganese, the water softener person said they did not see any signs of manganese (they did not test for it). They did check the toilet tank for signs of which there were none. Also, we have not seen any signs of manganese, such as a black sludge in coffee or tea, and blackish brown stains. Thanks.

I would never put pea gravel in an area where kids play, falling, swinging, sliding, running as that make for a much harder fall than simply landing on grass. It would be even worse than falling on the ground as the gravel can and will burrow into the skin, can cause rashes, burns, bleeds and besides, children like to put it in their ears and noses. They will also strew it in the grass and lawn mowers are likely to hit it and furl it in unwanted areas. Sand is a haven not only for sand fleas and cat pees but any wildlife that might like to play there in off hours. Keep the area well composted during the off season and the ground will be soft. This is not brain surgery. Keep the area composted and/or mulched for safe play. If you do, however, use mulch, be sure none of the children has allergies to the mulch which, same as grass, will serve up swelling, runny nose and hives for some. If you use compost, make sure it is well composted and there is no smell to it. Well-composted vegetable material from your kitchen and garden and/or animal manure should have no offensive odor. If you smell it, you either used too many greens and not even browns, or it is not well cooked/composted. Throw your coffee and tea grounds in the area. Worms will work the area, make the ground soft. Soil's best friends are worms. Throw coffee and tea grounds and they will come. As far as that plastic mulch, I would never use that. It gets very hot in summer and is cold in winter. It would not be very pliable in cold weather and it would steam in summertime. I also do not like the recycled rubber tire mulch. How hideous. That was designed for huge cars and trucks, not for child performance. Besides, just the smell would trigger asthma for some. Children seem to be allergic to more things in their environments now because they do not have all the allergens in order to reach desensitization as we once had. With less supervision from older siblings and/or other older children as there was years ago assisting in monitoring their play, children are more likely to be left on their own while mothers are tending to other business. I know many mothers who work from home and who just stick their kids outside while they work. It is impossible to properly tend to children if properly doing a job inside. We are not omniscient beings.

Similar to an earlier posting, my pool company said that the residual germs and microbes from one dog in the pool are equal to those left by about 40-50 humans. They also said that dog hair will damage the filter. We let a friend's dog into our salt pool once for about 15 minutes. It took five days to remove all the dog hair and oils and no one wanted to use the pool for those days. I will no longer allow a dog in the pool for basic hygiene concerns. Here are a few interesting links: http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/rwi/rwi-what.html Many other RWIs (eye, skin, ear, and respiratory infections) are caused by germs that live naturally in the environment (water, soil). In the pool or hot tub, if disinfectant is not maintained at the appropriate levels, these germs can increase to the point where they can cause illness when swimmers breathe or have contact with water containing these germs. Why doesn't chlorine kill these RWI germs? Chlorine in swimming pools does kill the germs that may make people sick, but it takes time. Chlorine in properly disinfected pools kills most germs that can cause RWIs in less than an hour. Chlorine takes longer to kill some germs such as Crypto, which can survive for days in even a properly disinfected pool. Here's info on crypto (Cryptosporidium): http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/pbs/zoonoses/gik9fel/crypto.html It looks like giardia may also be transfered in pools: Giardia is a one-celled, microscopic parasite that lives in many different and often unexpected water sources, including ponds, lakes, streams, backyard swimming pools and even tap water. Giardia has even been found on contaminated animal haircoats. When ingested, it infects the intestinal tract of pets and humans, causing fever, vomiting and diarrhea, as well as other potentially serious and painful gastrointestinal problems. Although any pet can contract the disease, dogs most at risk of becoming infected with Giardia include puppies, outdoor dogs, hunting dogs, farm dogs, city dogs, adopted strays, dogs that live in kennels and dogs in multi-pet households. Many researchers believe there is even the possibility of transfer of Giardia infection between pets and people.

sabbath7, your pool and fireplace is very pretty! Are those real rocks under the hot tub area? I like how the water flows over the stones. Mtn, that second picture you posted is one I've come across before and I believe it was a natural pool, AKA there is no pool cleaning system and the vegetation keeps the water clean. I briefly entertained the idea of doing something that b/c I love that picture, but gave up quickly b/c it seemed like too much hassle, impractical for us, and possibly kind of gross. These are very helpful suggestions, thanks! I have to be careful what I do around the pool's edging as far as vegetation b/c the dogs like to run circles around the pool when they swim in FL and they also like to roll around in grassy/plant areas when they are wet so I need to make sure they don't have garden areas where they can roll around and get filthy as they run around the pool. Garden/greenery has to be incorporated where they cannot get into it to make a mess. Our PB has us sourced to use PA Bluestone irregular slab pool coping and decking so we're good on that! I think he'll be good at picking out the rocks that look right b/c he knows we were very fanatical about the rocks for our water falls (like I said, we insisted on only rock sourced directly from our land for those... unfortunately, we don't have enough big rocks left on our land to do the pool). I will stress no orange-ish rocks and minimal or no rounded stone! I don't like round stones, they don't look as natural/rustic to me. We're trying to get the pool water color to be kind of like my first picture, do you think that was done w/ grey interior? I told PB I wanted water similar to that color, not sure what is planed for that yet. I'm not sure DH will go for rocks with lichen, he tends not to like mossy rocks and rejected the mossy once which were found when we did the water features. Don't know why he doesn't like b/c I think they look natural and add interest, but must compromise :)