thanks watermom..and greetings from a former supermod of a u.s. computer site to another supermod you do a great job here..

after discussion with a good pool supply store i finally tracked down online in canada, (the online sales rep, doug, was great) i decided to go with the pool leaf cover and dual waterbags system.

my 2 concerns were wind and weight of material. doug and another fellow at the store are using leaf catchers only in winnipeg manitoba..one of the coldest cities in canada, with heavy and lots of snow..and wind gusts seasonally compareable to what we get in lethbridge which barely gets any snow and only for a short period (about january, february). he said the leaf catchers work like a charm for both of them..he uses waterbags, the other guy uses a bungie type anchoring system. doug says neither have had an issue. he says they attach the nets tight and they will stretch a bit if there is a lot of material on them. i the amount of leaves i get here i would say is equivalent to about a wheelbarrow heaped full of material so it's pretty minor, but enough of a mess that i hate having to empty the basket in the pump about a dozen times and all the "flush to waste" required as the sand filter clogs up.

thanks for your help..i have a plan and the will!