Love the photos with the rain drops on the flowers, so fresh and beautiful. I like that contrast shot of NW and AJ also...pretty! I sure hope that "rain train" heads down our way Tom, it's dry and brittle here! Thanks for the photos and Happy 4th to you. Jan

Happy Canada Day to our Canadian neighbors and happy Independence Day to everyone here in the United States. I have nothing in particular planned, Elery and I have been working hard renovating the kitchen. I just painted countertops and they can't be used for a couple of days. Ashley is in the hospital, the docs think it's her gallbladder. No, kidney stones. No, wait.....oh, they don't know. Ugh. Makayla is signed up for ballet camp and I've been driving her back and forth to Grand Rapids. Fireworks used to be fun until they started popping them off at every amusement park, ball game, car dealership opening, whatever. Now I don't care if I ever see them again, but Amanda is working on the 4th of July and I might end up with Bud and Makayla somewhere. Have fun, everyone! Annie

I think whether you can have a party on the 4th depends on a couple things 1) will they slip your pebble at all? 2) what sort of start up do they do - I had a non-acid start up and was swimming right away (as it filled) 3) how big is your pool - and how good is your water pressure - my pool was only 12-13k gallons and we have EXCELLENT water pressure - previous owner was a fireman who installed high pressure/ high capacity hose bibs - using that bib plus an extra from the back yard and our pool was full in about 6 1/2 hours - from what I've seen on here that is not typical - so you need to think how long your fill time will be 4) Is you PB a flake? Will he get out to your house and help you start up your pumps and make sure everything is working right? There was a small problem with my equipment - and our plumber had completely flaked off by the end of our build - we were full of water - but didn't have equipment running for 5 days - due to no one wanting to come back out on the holiday weekend. We were having the 4th of july party debate the year we put our pool in and scraped the idea a couple weeks ahead because we just didn't trust that things would be up and running (at that point there had been so many delays and problems we weren't sure we'd even be swimming that summer!). We actually got pebble June 30 - but didnt have equipment running until July 5...my husband and I floated around of course - but were glad we made the call we did - we wouldn't have wanted a party in there without the pumps running! Just thought I'd share my experiences at potentail "failure points" - see where you think yours would be and how confident you are that they will work out the way you want! Good luck - and either way it sounds like you will be swimming soon!

Thanks everyone! I can't believe how beautiful my GEMINI has become. It's in a bed above the area where I had to dig out roses for the leach lines. The bed had become so overgrown with several clumps of daylilies and irises, that the roses in there didn't bloom well, and some not at all for yrs. GEMINI is ecstatic to be free of all the clutter that was around it, and I can't believe how many gorgeous blooms it's been pumping out! Even it's color is better too. Now if I can just get the time to clean out all the other beds so other roses will perk up and do better too. I just have so little time....