Swimming Pool

So, Susan got back from vacation where she had been swimming twice a day, every day, for 2 weeks. And she says, "Let's build a swimming pool in the back yard. Just a small one so we can swim and exercise a little every day. And the grandkids will love it when they come down to visit."

So Jeremy and I fired up the John Deere backhoe and started digging. Now it hasn't rained in south Texas in 8 months until we started digging. Then we had a flood. I used that opportunity for an early swim. (Susan did too but she didn't want anybody to know)

Took me 2 days to pump out the hole with a bilge pump. Now we are waiting for it to dry up so we can start digging again.

Jeremy turned out to be a great backhoe operator. He moved lots of dirt out of that hole.

One more rain. That makes 5 rains since we started. Now we are waiting for concrete trucks.

December -- So far 6 and 1/2 rains. Still waiting on concrete truck. They can't get close, too soft.

End of December - Another rain. Everything muddy and water in the bottom again. 7 and 1/2 Rains

Little Bilge pump gets to pump it out one more time. A country boy likes a little mud between his toes.

New Years Eve. One more rain, all night last night. How many is that? 8 and 1/2 ?

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Well, we got it pumped out. But now, the middle of January 2010, another good rain. 4 or 5 inches this time. This is

Burned up my bilge pump, but we have an electric pump trying to pump it out again.

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Swimming Pool Project restarted. We pumped it out and let it dry for a week or two. Sides caved in but we are digging them out again.

End of January 2010 -- The Concrete company, Alamo, would not let us have any concrete. They said they had other jobs that were more important than ours. That will be the last time we ever try to buy concrete from them in this lifetime.

So we called the Gunite people, Rhino Gunite out of Corpus. They showed up the next day with 6 man crew and went to work. Took them only 3 hours and we had concrete around our pool. Yeaaa!!!

Here is Javier starting to blow on the concrete. One man working, six outside watching.

After 5 months, we have cement pond. Now we are wetting it down 3 times a day and waiting for it to cure. 10 days they say, before we fill in around the outside or plaster.
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Didn't make it 3 days and it rained again. They say we are getting good firm set on concrete with the wet cold weather.

I lost count. I think that makes 10 or 11 rains since we started this project. I have asked and nobody can remember ever having this much rain in south Texas during any winter. The farmers want to get out in their fields now and go to work.

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End of February. We have had 2 more rains. One was less than an inch so I will call it another half. That is 12 good rains since we started this project. We have been talking and we think this has been the wettest coldest winter in south Texas that we can remember. When did we start this project, I can't remember. Let me look back at the top of the page. September. That was 5 months ago.

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End of March. 2 more rains but one was less than an inch. So about 14 rains so far.

Mid April. We have had rain 9 of the past 11 days. Rain 14 of the last 19 days. So everything has been muddy. I already lost count how many rain storms we have had. Let's just say the farmers are happy. Here are the latest pics.

Mid May --- The plaster crew came in on Friday and did some prep work...they said they would return Saturday to do the plaster.....

Friday, the plaster crew came in to do prep work and said they would come in Saturday and do the job...Saturday, we woke up at 5:30am to a thunder storm which left everything wet and soggy. We figured it would be another week before they would come back....but by 10:00am, the skies had cleared and the crew showed up and got to work....before the day was over the sun was blazing and the pool was plastered! Mike Sandidge 361-510-5975

We can recommend Sandidge Pools, they build pools too. 361-510-5975 Corpus Christi

Kevin finishing up the steps Mike, Austin, Kevin, Rick and Stephen - A Fine Lookin Crew

Sunday morning, was a little cloudy, but it didn't stop us from jumping in the pool...even though it wasn't yet completely filled and the water was around 78 degrees...we have been waiting since September 2009 for this day! It actually only took about 12 hours to complete the fill.

Mary and Bill came by for a visit...Mary dipped her feet in the water, but said it was too cold.

Time to build the deck around. But can't do it. Started raining again at 8 am this morning.

Water was green. Plaster man said to add chlorine. Like magic, it turned a beautiful shade of blue.

Dennis and Lee are steadily getting the deck put down. Dennis is the "Saw Man" (Lee says, the best he has ever seen) and Lee is the "Screw Man"....when he's not the "boot guy".

Won't be long before it is all down and we can get the fence back up and remove all the extra stuff from the yard and hopefully end up with a right nice oasis, right in the heart of Bishop, TX. We have been taking a little splash every day since the pool proper was completed May 15, 2010. We can't use our salt water chlorinator for 30 days, while the plaster cures, so we are having to dump in chlorine the old fashioned way....boy does it take a lot of chlorine....it seems to just disappear every day!

My pool helper is named Wanda...isn't she cute? She is a little blue whale with a really big toothy simile. She runs around cleaning the bottom of the pool from all the sand/dirt we get from the winds blowing across the King Ranch...beats me having to do that everyday!