Significant progress at the back of the house happened this week. On Monday. Jonathan and his crew returned to couple up the stand-by generator. So, now we have some protection against the all-too-frequent power cuts. Not total independence from the grid, mind you – the generator will be enough to provide light, power for cooking, electronics and so on. But not enough to run the heating or air conditioning. But we should be OK most of the time. Though, having made provision for a power outage probably will spur Amicalola Electricity into upping their game and never having another outage in future!
On Thursday, Doc and his crew arrived to mark out the pool. Everything had been carefully prepared to make things as smooth as possible. Doc had been out previously and surveyed the site, putting metal stakes into the ground and painting lines for the edges of everything. Our plumber had marked out exactly where the septic tank and outflow pipes are located, and we had been given guidance on where the discharge lines from the rainspout gutters run. Doc’s crew hammered in wooden posts and then put flexible wooden plans between them to delineate the curved shape of the pool, where the steps and mechanics were to go and so on. All looked well.
Then there was a hole made in the great swimming pool project as a huge digger arrived to make inroads into the “back garden”. The big digger gingerly drove down between the house and the Great Wall – an inch of so clearance on either side. Fortunately, the digger was on caterpillar tracks, so was able to swing round the bend at the end with remarkable dexterity. Things progressed at remarkable speed as the digger munched large chunks of red clay and a few rocks out of the hole. And once the hole was almost complete, finishing of the hole by hand started. The digger turned its attention to making a trench from the pool to the space by the edge of the house where necessary machinery would go. DISASTER! The digger took a chunky bite out of two pipes that had not been marked. One was the rainwater discharge pipe, which carries all the rain falling on the roof away into the forest. But much worse was the main line from the house to the septic tank. Doc shrugged – these things happen. He went off to get some pipe to make repairs, and we got on the phone to the plumber to ask what had happened to his carefully painted pipe markings. His excuse – I didn’t think you would be digging there! Repairs to the septic line were completed, but the rainwater drainpipe was left until next week as suitable materials weren’t immediately to hand (and the weather forecast was dry).
That wasn’t a good decision! On Friday afternoon we were out shopping and came home to every darkening skies. Five miles from home the thunder and lightning announced the arrival of high winds and pounding rain. We had to stop for a while as the road in front of us was half-blocked by a fallen tree. As we drove up Porter Springs Road, we even considered pulling off the road into a large church parking lot where we would not be at risk of trees coming down on us. Finally we got home safely, to find that the rain was in fact being diverted into the newly dug trench. Nothing to be done. Next morning, we could see that the trench was about three foot deep in water, and there was a foot or so at the deep end of the pool. It took two days to drain away and dry enough to leave a layer of sticky red fine clay.
On the charity front – I have been asked to assist in a charity fundraising – a wine tasting. This is in support of NOA, a charity that provides safe haven and support services for victims of domestic violence. This arose out of a chance conversation over dinner with some friends a couple of months back – things take time to come to fruition here! I dug out some of the materials from events I hosted for the Hobbayne Society and other groups back in Ealing to help explain the practicalities. A group of NOA organisers came out to the house for a meeting to discuss what/where/how of everything. It became rapidly clear that the rather formal sort of tasting from my UK experience wouldn’t fit the bill, but we brainstormed ideas, and came up with a plan for an event in November.
