Whew, it was a whirlwind day at the Pool of Dreams, with deliveries coming and going, plus machines zipping and banging. It was the big day for preparing the edges of the pool for installing the pavers.
Trucks brought loads and loads of fine sand, which was then packed down as hard as possible by one of those vibrating things that packs sand down well.
The vibrating thing 
More dirt
One of the men was zipping around on some kind of little tractor thing that dumped sand and smoothed it a bit. Let me tell you, there was a lot of dog barking, back-up beeping, and banging going on. Oh how I miss my office at the Pope house! But, hey, I’ll get a pool. That’s good.
Lee and his nephew have many opinions on what the guys are doing, so I can’t wait to see how that all works out. I was just impressed at how much got done!
Trucks also brought in the pavers, which look like they will blend in very well. I think they’re the color of the dirt here. That was a creative choice of mine…I guess. In addition, a decision was made to make little retaining walls, so some retaining wall blocks showed up, which I had not selected, but will look fine. I’ll not be complaining about that.
Color of dirt, but nice. 
All wrapped up 
Retaining walls, and the drain they put in 
Penney inspects retaining wall material after climbing out of a stair trench
Even though I saw the outlines they drew on the ground before starting the work, I’m not a hundred percent sure what the whole outside patio and planter will end up looking like. I know there will be steps! And retaining walls. That will just have to do.
I tried to do Apache’s schooling this afternoon after work, not realizing that the noise of the pool building might not be his favorite thing on earth. So, I got a lot of chances to settle him down and practice not getting all nerved out when he got jumpy. He simply would NOT walk over to the cones. So, I ended up running him in circles in the round pen and doing figure eights in the field and around the fencing pipes in front of the house. After that I walked him over to the cones and let him look at the workers, then I walked him around his circles. I figure that was a win in the long run.
I took so many pictures, plus Lee took some, so enjoy the process of building the paver foundation.
It took a lot of guys to do this. 
They spent a lot of time getting things level 
You can see how the entry to the beach will look. Bonus dogs. 
More dirt. 
Lee is on patrol for exposed rebar. 
Here’s all the equipment they used today. Pavers are getting delivered. 
Working on the left side of the pool. 
Zipping along. 
The far side will be raised pretty high. There will be steps. 
This trench is the foundation for a step.
The Hermits' Rest 