Pool Progress: August 4

After a long, long wait for our permit we are finally actually SEEING some pool progress!! Before the pool building company can start we had to have the part of the yard where the pool will be cleared. The pool company gave us the name of a guy (Clark) and he came out to get started last Wednesday.

Clark started with our big Palo Verde tree that the kids have nicknamed "Casa de Guamo"... don't ask... I have no idea how they came up with that! It was a beautiful, mature tree and we were all a bit sad to see it go. The old tree proved to be quite a challenge for Clark and his helper Carlos. After pulling up a bunch of roots and trying to push it over, they ended up slowing sawing it apart. The boys, of course, supervised.

[Update: For fun I just looked up what guamo means in Spanish. Definition: "A tall, branching tree of narrow leaves, planted to shade the coffee-tree". A shockingly appropriate name after all. Although it shaded us and not coffee! And I still have no idea how the boys came up with that!]

After a full day of work it didn't look like they got much done. The tree branches were gone, but the stump was still there. They had carted off a bunch of tree limbs, but a bunch were left too. And they had only knocked a very small part of the wall away just to see how sturdy it was.

They didn't come on Thursday because we were scheduled for irrigation and they didn't want to work if it was too wet. They were back Friday when they really made some visible progress. The patio wall came down and all the bushes.

Clark had to take an extra long lunch break to drive the Bobcat to get a new tire. A piece of rebar poked a hole in it. Good thing there are no less than 3 tire stores within a half mile of our house! He ended up coming back with 8 extra trailer tires on his Bobcat forks. Guess Clark is always on the look out for good bargain! The tree was finally removed. Clark called it "stout" and gave it the honor of one of the top ten toughest trees he has ever taken down.  Debris was carried away and by the time they left we had a nice cleared area.

I will say I am glad we aren't paying Clark by the hour. He isn't the fastest worker. He isn't an early riser either. "First thing" in the morning for him is about 10:30am. They didn't leave our house until after 8pm on Friday!

Unfortunately, it's still not completely ready for the pool layout team. Clark will be back Monday to finish removing some of the brick patio and grass. Then he will grade it so the pool crew has a clean slate.