We finally decided to hire Wade, the guy who worked on our septic system and dug the pit for the septic tanks (and the reason we even started to think about a pool), because I wasn't moving fast enough. The first thing he did was smooth out the pool so it was easier to get in and out.
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Wade is much more experienced at 'chemical rock removal' than I am and the pace picked up quite a bit. Still, he hadn't been doing a lot prior to our work and had got a bit out of practice and it took him a while to ramp up to maximum effectiveness, but as you can see here, he really started to move some rock.
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Here is Don giving some scale to the deep end (and to the rock right in the middle). Not sure why he is frowning in one of the pictures.
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Actual proof that Don was helping (though we pretty much took pictures whenever it happened, so you can draw your own conclusions about how helpful he has been).
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The footers are finally starting to take shape. We ran a string along the length of the pool and put a string where each footer was to be centered, though as it turned out each location was just enough off that when we were finally ready to tackle pouring the pool footers almost each hole had to be enlarged or deepened.
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Whenever it rained, not only did the pit get muddy, but the footer holes often filled up with water. We got a pump to get the water out, something that could get quite tedious.
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