The pool part deux

(Note: this is a long post, please click ‘Read More‘ at the bottom to see the whole story!)

We were up ready at 8.30 for the pool people to arrive as arranged, of course they were bang on French time so arrived about 9.15. Man with digger then arrived and after much shouting and discussion it was agreed that the levels would work (we are building the pool on a slope so there will be a wall along one side) so digging started by removing a tree root, this took all of 30 seconds! All very exciting:

A tree needed taking down, no problem!

Work on the hole then started:

Then disaster struck – one of the hydraulic hoses broke, the wavy bluish line in this picture is hydraulic fluid squirting out from the connector on the right of the picture.

We were first told it would take days to get a replacement, but of course they said perhaps it could be fixed and low and behold 2 hours later they returned with a replacement and work started in anger and it wasn’t long before a pool shaped hole appeared:

All told it took 6 hours to dig, this was a lot longer then the driver had hoped as most of the diging was through shale, luckily there was no solid rock so the work was done without any special equipment being needed (quite a relief, the house sits on a rock!).

The shale is near vertical in the ground, as I am sure you know shale was created by deposits of mud on a river bed a few million years ago!

In the next few weeks the concrete base should be laid and the walls either this year or around April next year. Completion SHOULD be in May.

Please Father Christmas can I have a digger for Christmas!!!!!!!!!!