Pallet Pool, Part 1

How (not) to Build a Pallet Pool

My wife was bemoaning the summer ahead..."Covid restrictions, you'll be working, the kids and I will have nothing to do." So she ordered a pool. Our backyard is not too big...about 16 feet wide...so she ordered a 14' diameter pool on Amazon. However for whatever reason the company was not able to fulfill the order...so we were back with no pool. All pools that we looked for after that were either the wrong size or too shallow.

Her friend sent us a link or two about homemade pools. At first I was pretty skeptical - one of the links showed someone digging a big hole and lining it with a tarp. No thanks. But then I found a few sites that showed pallet pools. Pallets are free all over the place. With the cost of lumber skyrocketing, it seemed like a good fit...

I found some pallets on Craigslist. They were all the same size (44"x56"). I figured, go big or go home, let's make a pool that we can actually swim in instead of a dinky 8 foot circle, so I picked up two truckloads and set them up.

(Ironically, that is our 'pool table' in the middle there...)

Once I had a basic design (elongated octagon) it was time to dig. Our backyard had a slight slope so more dirt needed to be removed on one side than the other. I wanted the pallets to be set slightly into the yard to keep them from moving around, but I was too lazy to dig deeper than a shovelful...we dug about 8 inches on one side and 3 or 4 inches on the other.

Once the ground was fairly level, with piles of dirt all around, I bought half a yard of gravel (crusher chips) and carried it one bucket at a time, through our townhouse (we don't really have backyard access), to the back, dumped it out, and Kate smoothed it out with a rake. There was only a couple of inches of gravel at the most, but it was enough to pack down and give us a solid, smooth-ish foundation.

Levelling is very important because a pool is unforgiving when it shows you if you are out of level. Water is a built-in level! I taped a 2-foot spirit level to a long stick and scraped it around for awhile until I was satisfied.

Next I set up the pallets. I screwed them together with a few 3" deck screws, mostly so they wouldn't fall down, not for any structural reason. I set them on the gravel and then later bought more gravel to fill in the space behind the pallet. The main reason for using gravel instead of earth was to hopefully help with drainage--I didn't want the pallets to rot too quickly in the ground. I did pile on the dirt after a few inches of gravel, however.

And that is it for part 1. It was a fair amount of work on some hot days; looking forward to getting it done! And so far it cost about $40 for gravel...so cheap, what could go wrong???

Flamingos

I'm not sure why, but I had an idea to help my mom celebrate a milestone birthday with some physically distanced flamingoes. Party rentals charge about $75 for a couple of days so I thought I'd make my own and then I wouldn't have to worry about picking them up in time.

First I drew a template and cut ten shapes out of thin plywood. I stapled on a small stake for a 2nd leg. Then they got spray painted pink.

Lastly I spray painted the beaks gold and used a black sharpie for the eyes. Then I snuck out to my parents house at 9pm the eve of my Mom's birthday. It was a bit of a rainy evening and fairly dark, but there was a streetlight nearby so I thought I might get caught. I tiptoed around the side of the front lawn and stuck the sticks in the wet ground.

The next day I got a text of thanks from my parents. My mom said I made her day!

However the interior-grade plywood did not last long in the pouring rain: the next day one of them got a headache.

Light - Handy Andrew and the Rusty Nails

This is a song written and recorded last year with a couple of friends. It was professionally recorded but the music video...not so much :)

Change

As some of you know, I enjoy building Theatre Sets. However, they are temporal creations and cannot stand the test of time. Usually they have to last 2 or three weeks, then they get taken down and recycled/thrown away. I have had a few recent sets not even make it to the stage.

The latest constructive casualty is due to the COVID outbreak in BC. All public gatherings are cancelled indefinitely. I had made this particular set for the musical, The Secret Garden. It was quite large, and I had taken extra time to make it easy to set up quickly. But as it can't go ahead, it had to go back in storage. I had a sad (though beautiful) day taking it apart.

While journalling tonight, I caught myself writing the phrase 'God willing' as I described my hope that the set would be useful in the future. I then thought of the passage in James 4:13-15 (NIV) which reads:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

I think this public health crisis is a good reminder that we are not 100% in control of our lives. We do generally struggle along and make our schedules work for us, but there are never any guarantees. And that's okay.

Outdoor Eyesore

An idea that Malachi and I have had for awhile is to build an outdoor pool table in the backyard. However our plans were complicated by the accidental arrival of an air hockey table last September. Our neighbour was trying to get rid of it, and so I gave him a few bucks. It didn't fit in the house though--I had hoped it could work as a coffee table. So it sat outside in the rain under a plastic bag for a few months.

The air hockey table can't really get wet, so it was necessary to build a shelter for it.

This was accomplished with some landscape ties. Later a roof was added that was made of 1x2 and clear plastic. It was soon tested in the wind, rain, snow and ice but survived.

Next the air hockey table was hung from the rafters via pulleys.

This way it could be lifted out of the way and stored in the ceiling so that the pool table could be used.

Lastly the pool table was constructed, and finished with outdoor carpet and wire baskets for pockets.

We still need to buy proper balls and cues but for now we used Malachi's toy set and it worked ok.

Alternator fun

A month or so ago I was driving a friend/customer to Vancouver to pick up a bed. He complimented on my truck, saying how well it was running (for its age). Well, we were in the tunnel under Hastings when I noticed my battery light flicker on. I was a little worried that I'd get stuck in Vancouver, but it flickered right back off again and was fine, in fact so fine that I kind of forgot about it even though it started to blink on with more frequency.

Then last week it was kind of on all the time. I decided it was probably the alternator, or maybe the battery. But it kept starting, no problem.

But eventually I decided I'd better get another alternator. I called around to the scrapyards, if they'd had one in stock it would have been less than $50, and new was $250-$300 from the auto parts places, so I ordered one on Amazon for $170. It was a couple of days shipping, and the day before it arrived my truck died.

I wasn't too far from home so I took the bus home, put an old battery in my backpack, and biked back. I switched batteries, the truck started, and drove for about 3 blocks before dying again. So I bought a new battery from a store nearby and managed to nurse the truck all the way home.

I took out the old alternator and waited until the next day for the new one. It went in without too much hassle. And truckie's been working fine ever since. Well, mostly fine--sometimes seems to run a little rough, I might have to get my fan clutch checked out...

Mario Kart 8/19

Victor and Malachi and I had a race in Harrison. We rented some dune buggy bicycle things. One of them had a side car.

Victor and I were in the lead.

Despite our best efforts, Malachi started gaining in his Malachimobile. (I suspect he got a mushroom)

He pulled even with us! We pelted him with squid ink, turtle shells, and a lightning bolt, but it was no use!

He passed the finish line well ahead of us. We hung our heads in disappointment.

But it was a good day anyway. We cooled off in the lake, headed to the pub for supper, and were home before bedtime!