Pooling our resources

Yep, we're pooling our resources. In other words, turning our financial resources into a pool. A lap pool. Instead of keeping those savings for a rainy day. Are we mad? Possibly. But you know what, I reckon the rainy day is here, now. What is money for, unless you spend it? You can't take it with you. So we are making a "lifestyle investment" in hydrotherapy now. There. Swim now, starve later. You can tell, this discretionary expenditure decision has been a source of some angst for me. But the decision is made, I'm happy and excited about it and today, this is what happened!

Wardy and his big new yellow machine arrived at 7.30 am this morning. This shot overlooks the area into which the new pool will be put. What you see here is grass with swales that have been managing the water flow when it rains.

The big machine drove through and scraped off the ends of the swales, making a pathway for the trucks to come in and out. At this point I had to go inside and recover for a while. All this earthmoving is quite stressful for me. But David loves it. He was scampering about like a kid in preschool.

The good topsoil was scraped off and put aside in a big heap. We will use it to make a big raised bed for growing citrus. They like excellent drainage. At this stage of proceedings I went to work, so the following photos were taken by David as the day progressed.

This shot shows the boundaries of the future pool area marked out with pink string. It will be about 3 metres wide and one third of 50 metres long. So you do 6 laps and you've swum 100 metres. One lap is 16.66 recurring metres long. Our builder, Chris of Azure Pools jokes that he will be getting out the calipers to ensure the measurement is exact.

 http://azurepools.com.au/pages/gallery/gallery.html

Beneath the topsoil was gluggy shaley clay.

 The actual hole was started.

All that awful gluggy stuff was put in trucks and carted away. Its not clear to us where it went, but not far. So someone must have a use for it.

By the end of the day, half a pool dug. Now, it just needs to not rain for a few days while the rest of it is dug and the concrete goes it. Hang on, what's that I'm hearing outside? Mm. Rain.

We're looking after the dogs next door while their Mummy and Daddy are away. Billy was just dying to get through that fence and investimigate what on earth was going on. You might well ask, Billy. What on earth are we up to?

Last one in is a rotten egg!