Riverview Camp Ground

 

Clean swimming pool water is essential to ensuring safe and healthy swimming experiences throughout the season. However, pollution and contaminants are continually entering swimming pools, risking the health of everyone who swims in the water. The environment contributes pollutants to swimming pools in the form of pollen, bacteria, spores, dust and debris while swimmers can transmit viruses, sweat, oils and lotions into the water. As a result, every swimming pool must have a circulation pump and filter in proper working order so that pollutants, debris and organic materials can be removed quickly and thoroughly. When this occurs, the pool water will be a safe place to enjoy hours of swimming and fun.

As already mentioned, above ground pool filters and pool pumps are absolutely essential to proper swimming pool sanitation. Pool pumps provide the main force for re-circulating water and are electrically operated. While above ground pool pumps are sometimes run for up to 24 hours during the swimming season, many pool owners run their aboveground pool pumps for between 6 to 12 hours each day in order to conserve electricity and keep costs down. These days, more and more manufacturers are developing highly efficient above ground pool pumps in order to make it easier for pool owners to save on both electricity and money.

Above ground pool filters are also vital to swimming pool filtration and cleaning systems. As the pool water passes through the filter, debris and contaminants are trapped and removed so that only clean water is returned to the pool. Just as there are many different sizes of above ground swimming pools, there are also many different sizes of pool filters, so every swimming pool owner can choose a filter that is right for their particular pool. In addition to the selection of various sizes, above ground pool filters come in three main types — sand filters, cartridge filters and diatomaceous earth filters.

Sand filters are one of the oldest and most widely used types of pool filters. When these filters are in filtration mode, water flows from top to bottom and an underdrain or lateral system located in the bottom of the filter returns water to the swimming pool. This lateral system has slots which prevent the sand from entering the pool while allowing water to filter through. As the water passes through the sand filter, debris and contaminants are trapped in or on top of the sand bed so that the water which re-enters the swimming pool is clean and debris-free. This type of pool filter uses a special kind of sand known as #20 silica, and can be cleaned by reversing the water flow to backwash the filter. This cleaning process needs to be carried out every few weeks and must be performed by hand.

Cartridge filters are another type of above ground pool filters and feature a greater surface area than sand filters. This means that smaller contaminant particles of debris can be trapped by these filters than by sand filters. Furthermore, cartridge filters are manufactured from a special lightweight fiber material which is highly effective at removing dirt and other unwanted material from pool water. As a result of this effectiveness, cartridge pool filters provide approximately twice as much filtration as sand filters. Another benefit of using cartridge filters rather than sand filters is that cartridge above ground pool filters operate at a lower pressure, thereby exerting less strain on the pool pump and allowing for greater flow.

While cartridge pool filters are more effective than sand filters, diatomaceous earth or DE above ground pool filters provide the very best level of swimming pool water filtration currently available. Diatomaceous earth is a porous powder which is actually the exoskeletons of diatoms. This porous powder has microscopic openings which allow clean water to flow through but prevent particles as small as 2 to 5 microns from passing back into the pool. As a result, diatomaceous earth filters provide extremely effective water filtration. These above ground pool filters are cleaned by backwashing or by regenerating and draining the clogged diatomaceous earth.

No matter what type of above ground pool pump or pool filter you decide to use to keep your swimming pool safe and clean, you will have a variety of quality brands to choose from. Products by such trusted manufacturers as Hayward and Pentair are available at great prices from many respected direct retailers, including Intheswim.com. Whether your pool is big or small, and whether you prefer sand, cartridge or diatomaceous earth filtration, ensuring that you have an effective, properly operating pool filtration system will allow you and your family to enjoy many hours of fun in a safe, clean swimming pool.

My name is Jon C, and I am the office chef at dawjee.com. Due to health and safety regulations, the only cooking utensils we’re permitted are a rice cooker, egg steamer and combination microwave oven (it can do grills and roasts). I try to use these tools to provide our staff with cheap healthy meals. Local dining establishments serve low quality, expensive food, that can have a noticeably negative impact on the afternoon performance of my staff.

This dish involves a delicious combination of chilli prawns and rice. Either raw or pre-cooked prawns can be used. Though raw prawns are better for absorbing flavour from the marinade.

I shall not list quantities in the ingredients list as I just take a guess and chuck things into the pot. Just use a sensible estimate and experiment until you have the balance of flavours that you require.

Ingredients

Prawn Marinade:

ginger

garlic

chilli (powder, flakes or fresh)

sesame oil

light soya sauce

For the rest:

rice

water

onion

mushrooms

sweetcorn

peas

Bouillon vegetable stock

spring onion

Instructions

Prawn Marinade

Chop the ginger, garlic and chilli (if fresh) finely. Mix this with the sesame oil, light soya sauce and ground black pepper.

Mix the prawns in the marinade and set aside in a fridge for a few hours. If I’m planning on serving lunch at 12pm, I’ll normally prepare the beef at 9am.

Cooking

Rinse the rice in the rice cooker a few times, and fill with water until there’s about a finger nail’s breadth of water above the top of the rice.

Add about half a teaspoon of vegetable stock to the rice,

Chop the onion and mushrooms into small pieces.

Add all the vegetables (apart from the spring onion) to the rice.

Add the marinaded prawns to the rice.

Mix everything up.

Turn on the rice cooker start cooking.

Chop up the spring onion.

When the food is cooked (this normally takes about 30 minutes), turn off the rice cooker, add the chopped spring onion, and give it all another good stir.

Summer will be here soon enough, and your kids will be thrilled with being out of school and playing outside. Well, at least for a few days anyway. Once the newness of summer has worn off and the reality of boredom sinks in, your once happy campers can turn into ‘mom I’m bored’ monsters. What’s a parent to do to help ease the pain of ‘nothing to do’? Planning summer craft projects in advance is an idea that smart parents may make use of. Who knows, perhaps the kiddos will even learn a thing or two at the same time.

Since the weather is perfect for getting out and exploring nature, kids can find objects like seeds, leaves, grass, flowers and other items to use in making a nature collage. All they have to do is glue the found craft bits onto a stiff piece of cardboard. They can add any other items they want to make the collage colorful and interesting. Spraying the collage with paint can add color and variety too. How about spraying some glue on and then sprinkling glitter on the collage? Another idea for using the nature items they collect is to arrange dried flowers into special arrangements for mom.

Naturally, if kids collect wild flowers they’ll need a wonderful homemade vase to arrange them in. Making a simple vase is a great summer craft idea. Kids can make a nice, simple vase from a recycled tin can. Soup cans and small coffee cans work well for homemade vases. The best tin cans have smooth outsides and aren’t too wide. Make sure you trim off any sharp points or edges that may still be on the can opening. Kids can cut a piece of colorful construction paper to fit around the outside of the can and then glue it to the can after they’ve decorated it in anyway they wish. Stickers, markers, crayons, paint, glue and glitter…the list goes on. A great idea for decorating the vase is by drawing a wonderful summer scene on the construction paper. They can also add their name, glue dried pasta, beans or seeds on the paper. Let it all dry well before gluing to the can. However they may want to decorate their vase is up to them. All that’s left is adding some water and flowers or their dried wildflowers.

Kids can make containers and vases from empty jars as well. Canning jars make great vases, but any old recycled jar works well. Make sure to clean it really well. Let the kiddos get their hands wet by cleaning the jars themselves. After the jar is dry, add pretty ribbon around the mouth. Kids will love painting on the glass jar and maybe adding glitter, beads and buttons too.

Tin can and glass jar vases have multiple uses other than containers for flowers. Kids can put in pencils, pens and markers or any small item they want to put add.

These are just a few basic and simple craft ideas that you can help your kids make this summer. There are literally boundless ideas for summer kid crafting. You can spend some fun time with your children while preventing the boredom monster from showing itself too soon. Not only will you and your kids have fun, but you’ll have some adorable items to display in your home or give as gifts to family and friends. Your kids can learn some new crafting skills and have the satisfaction of accomplishment at the same time. Stay cool and happy crafting this summer!