It was a sweltering day; the temperature was way into the thirties, and it was only ten in the morning. It was too hot to do any chores; I decided the only thing to do was to go and sit by the pool. Lying across the boundary of my property and my neighbour’s is a pool; it is an old farm pool, well-established, fed by a stream with an overflow that lets the stream continue on its course. The stream arrives from my neighbour’s property and leaves via mine.

It has some fish in it, but neither my neighbour nor I fish; the fish just live and spawn and do their own thing. They don’t bother me when I swim, and I guess that I don’t bother them either. I suppose the pool is about an acre in size and I guess around ten feet deep in the middle. The water is clear, and at this time of the year it is warm enough to swim in, and also it sucks the heat out of the air, making it cool to sit by. I think that the constant flow of water from the stream helps keep the pool alive and clear and, importantly, oxygenated.

I have constructed a wooden gazebo on my property by the pool; it offers shade from the sun and shelter from the rain, and when the sun is at its brightest, it is a welcome haven to sit in and read. When I say constructed, I really mean assembled; the gazebo came as a kit. All I had to do in terms of construction were the foundation pads. It was hot and it was time to head to the pool. I shut and locked my front door behind me, unplugged my side-by-side, threw in some towels, bottles of water, a cooler with ice and my Kindle and headed on down the track to the pool.

It is rare that I see my neighbour Bill by the pool; he always seems too busy managing his land to take the time to enjoy the pool. He manages his part of the forest, felling trees and milling lumber to sell. His setup is far superior to mine; he has a professional-grade band saw and also an old circular saw that he is restoring. To accompany that, he also has an edger. I have a second-hand Wood Mizer that I use to mill any fallen trees on my property, and occasionally I will fell a tree for a specific project, but it is nothing like Bill’s setup.

Bill has a much more modern WoodMizer, a sawdust collection system, and a mulcher. All the offcuts and branches he mulches and then spreads around his forest floor; he says it puts nutrients back and helps the ecosystem. He uses his edger to square his sawn wood; I just put mine back through my mill on its side and edge it that way. I don’t have any of what Bill has; I just have a mill, and that is it. It works for me; I can use my chainsaw to chop trees into usable sizes and then drag them out of the forest with chains and carry them to my mill with my skid steer. I know that Bill has several different sizes of professional chainsaws; mine is just one, and it is not a professional model.

Bill’s process is much more business-oriented, but then, he makes money from it, and I don’t; I just try to be self-sufficient in lumber, and by and large, I am. I also try to manage my share of the forest, felling dying or dead trees and clearing spaces to allow gaps in the canopy. Today, however, would appear to be a rare non-business day. Bill just drove down to the pool in his side-by-side; mine is electric and whisper quiet, and Bill’s is powered by a gas engine and is much noisier. I heard him approach long before I saw him.

He pulled up, and as he looked across at me, I waved a greeting and then lay back down. What Bill did in his half of the pool was up to him. To be fair, if no one else is there, I do often stray into Bill’s designated half. What does it matter? It’s just a pond. I so rarely saw him down here that I couldn’t even begin to guess what he was going to do; I just wanted that, whatever it was he did, that it was quiet. I kept my eyes closed and stared at my eyelids.

“Morning, Mica,” Bill greeted; he had walked across, and I hadn’t noticed.

“Hi Bill, a day by the pool?”

“Yup, it’s too hot to work today; I need some time away from trees, and I heard the pool calling my name.”

“Indeed, it is hot, and I like that it is a few degrees cooler by the pool. I think that the pool sucks some of the heat out of the air, and of course I can dip my feet in to help cool down.”

“You could always swim.” Bill said as he looked across the pool.

“Well, yes, I could have, but perhaps not now; I didn’t bring a costume.”

“You could always skinny dip; that’s what I shall do. We aren’t overlooked by anyone, no one around for miles, so, yeah, I shall have a dip in a bit.”

I didn’t answer; I didn’t really want to strip off and show my all and sundry, even for the few moments it would take to get into the pool. I know I am no different to half the population, but I didn’t see the need to confirm it to him. Let him remain oblivious to the mysteries of his neighbour’s body. I am not an exhibitionist, nor am I shy, but, as things felt at that moment, going naked into my pool didn’t appeal.

Bill wandered away, back to his side of the pool, and I lay back and closed my eyes, listening to the sounds of the forest. I could hear movement; creatures, who knew what, were moving through the trees, deer perhaps. I could hear the distant shrill calls of hawks as they flew and the alarm calls of their prey, the smaller birds. I knew that the sounds of the forest were very different at night. The calls were different, and the movement of animals was quieter and softer. Smaller creatures, perhaps. I supposed I could set up some nighttime cameras, but I wasn’t interested enough to go to the trouble.