My thought process led to another step in the closing of the backyard pool in this first fall and coming winter in A Bitty Better in our Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville.
Orange sticks and rope.
I purchased a bunch of the long, tall sticks that most folks use to mark their driveway lines for the plowing service, and a batch of brightly covered rope.
Around the edge of the in-ground pool my dear wife Karen and I put this stuff together.
Don’t go there.
My hope is that the foot-or-so level of the rope deters Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle from any winter dashes across the cover. Or any pool crossings from any living creatures that tall, really.
Worth the effort, I figure.
Mark Bialczak 
Now that it is getting cooler, my Husky loves getting in the pool. I love your cover idea!!!
I saved a baby opossum out of the pool skimmer last winter. It was hypothermic – so I made a little incubator out of a tupperware container, wrapped it in old towels, and left the container out in the sun. He perked up. I fed him a mixture of honey, peanut butter and water and he really came to life, enough to hiss at me, and bare his teeth. My husband released him under the Sequoia and he went scampering off to find his Mum. That was my good deed for last winter!!!
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That was a great deed, SD. What a fantastic rescue!
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Good idea, Mark. I’d go a step further, though – hang some tinkle bells to scare her away. Of if bells would be annoying, hang some flags or something that would flap and scare her away.
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Good ideas, both, CM. Thank you!
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Good safety-minded thinking there, Mark. And will it hold under the weight of all that (maybe) snow ?
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I sure hope so, Van. Something else to worry about.
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That one looks really secure, Mark. Ours survived many Michigan winters, until the renters moved in…but that’s another story.
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Oh, boy, the dreaded renters. Oy, Van.
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Good thinking MBM. It will help when the snow falls for you and DWK to know where the outline is too.
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I agree, MBC, that is a good benefit of the stakes and rope.
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Always worth the effort, Mark.
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Thank you, Ann, for taking the effort to second our effort.
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wow, you guys are very creative and handy, both –
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Well, the idea came to me while staring out at the pool cover and roaming Ellie B, Beth. 😮
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