#1 - No; not till you are ready to leave.
#2 - Just use the pucks. Use bleach only if the chlorine gets below 2 ppm.
#3 - Use a floater.
#4 - The borax is pretty cheap and is a good way to make your pool more resistant to algae. 8 boxes is correct, but you don't have to add it all at once. If you shop at Walmart, there's a good chance you can get by with 2 trips.

Otherwise, your pool numbers look good.