After many delays and false starts, things have really started moving forward on the pool project this week. Several dead and dangerous trees were removed by Kevin and his crew. The resulting timber was hauled away to be sold for firewood in due course, and the branches and leaves were all chipped up into an impressive sized pile of mulch.
“Doc”, the pool builder was on site sticking metal rods into the ground and painting outlines on the ground for the new swimming pool. Lots of curved lines were drawn with the assistance of bits of string to map out exactly where the diggers have to do their stuff. Unfortunately for us, Doc is off on his annual holidays starting this week, so the actual digging will not start until 6th August. But in the meantime other things are going on. Our friend TJ, who did most of the foundations and other concrete and hard landscaping for the house, was out to consider the next steps at the back. He combined his planning session with some much-needed running repairs to the driveway, putting down a lorryfull of “crush and run” gravel and stone mixture and smoothing everything down. So we can now drive out to the road without worrying about sliding into a tree or breaking an axle.
Outside, the weather continues hot and humid, with temperatures in the 90s (Farenheit) most days and with humidity to match. When the rain comes, it is in short but violent thunderstorms. Everyone we speak with is complaining, saying that is an unusually hot summer. I go out in the evening to water some of our plants, and we continue to pick produce (mostly glossy green padron peppers and heritage tomatoes – Mountain Pride and Indigo Blueberry. We continue to supplement our crop with other heritage tomatoes like Cherokee Purple and Lemon Boy from the Dahlonega Farmers Market.