Mission 1 - The Fill.. the Drain... the Fill

The Fill, the Drain, the Fill

Luckily we live in Wales so if its not currently raining then it will be in the next 10 minutes (and we are not on a water meter). So rain on. Hose on.

I filled about 6 inches a time then left the pool to settle and inspected for any movement of the bales, stakes, etc.

I started to get nervous about 2/3rds full when the 2 long sides started to bow slightly with the water pressure. About 7/8 full, I chickened out. The pool was holding fine but the cost of replacing the neighbours prized bedding plants, my new fence panels and sweeping the neighbours dog in a tsunami flood led me to drain down and re-assess the red-neck simplicity of the wooden stake reinforcements.

I originally intended to drive metal stakes down through the bales, this then became wooden stakes (cost), these then went in outside the bales (as I wasn't sure I could drive them through).... too many compromises... So this time round I went a little more professional at it. 3 ground stakes on the 'downhill' side, 2 on the uphill side and 1 each end to prevent the side bowing. I reused the old metpost stakes from an old log store I tore down a few years earlier - so a few lengths of pressure treated timber and a little extra graft finished the job.