The gunnite crew got to our house by 7 AM and they were done before noon. Amazing.

That's the gunnite "gun" blowing concrete. There was a lot of dust in the air. Concrete dust that made me wish all the workmen were wearing masks. Only one was.

That's my neighbor, Jim, inspecting our site. The neighbors are being very nice about the upheaval in the alley.

The Smackdown Auction is over and Hollis' quilt brought in the most so she will wear the belt – way to go Hollis! But all together our four quilts raised $8300. The four of us are very excited. I don't know yet how much was raised by votes on the Viewer's Choice and on t-shirt sales. I'll share that when I know it.

I want to thank all of you for your support! It is much appreciated. I know that I enjoyed taking part in this friendly competition and would do it again without hesitation.

Yesterday was day two of our pool build. They put in the rebar and the plumbing. The crew moved fast and they really knew what they were doing.

Now it's ready for the gunnite.

Ok – today is the day. If you want me to win the smackdown, please oh please bid the price of my quilt up so that it goes for the most money. Bragging rights are at stake (admittedly, it's my bragging rights, but I'm not above bragging on occasion).

Appliquers – unite! The auction is for a good cause, all money goes to fight Alzheimer's – and you end up with a quilt! If you have money to donate, please spend it here.

Thank you in advance.

Elanor, Jack, and Steve watch the big digger driving off of the flatbed trailer. Jack was extremely excited!

The guys used the digger to take out bushes, small trees, some stumps and a layer of dirt. Then they marked the edges of the pool. Normally they would use stakes, but there is a lot of rock under the dirt. The stakes kept breaking so they built these markers.

They hit white rock at a depth of about 1'. White rock is limestone. Some of it was crumbly and some of it came out in huge chunks. The general consensus is that we don't have to worry about this pool moving or cracking. We also don't need to worry about water seeping into the hole. This rock is one reason why basements are non-existent in our part of the world.

At 6' they hit blue rock – shale. I didn't know we had blue rock here and Bill, our pool guy, was also surprised. They have a special rock puncturing tool that replaces the bucket on the end of the digging arm of the digger. It was sort of like a jack-hammer on steroids.

By 4:00 they were done. Tomorrow the steel (rebar) and some of the plumbing goes in. I'll show you what that looks like then!

The general consensus is that this is just about the perfect sized pool. Not too big, not too small. I will get to look out my studio window at water all year round. Oh happy day.

Quilting Arts has come out with a special commemorative Issue called International Quilt Festival – Quilt Scene. This issue is jam-packed with good photos, articles, and how-tos. It's a keeper.

Pokey Bolton, the QAs editor and founder, wrote about the magazine's release on her blog. If your quilt shop or local book store doesn't have it in stock, you can find it here.

Well, Steve and I aren't actually doing any digging – Allison Pools in Denison, TX, is doing all the work and we are writing the checks.

We had talked about having a pool for several years but we couldn't afford it when the kids were in school (elementary, high school, or college). But now the kids are on their own and we figured that now is the time! Our backyard is tiny so the pool will be small. That's not a bad thing – it will be more manageable. This is the way our yard looked 4 weeks ago:

This is how it looked Monday. That black hole in the house is for the new window we had put in so that we can see the pool from our bedroom (soon I hope).

The brick around the window opening was finished on Tuesday:

Steve and I are going to finish out the inside of the window on Sunday and I'll show you what I've done to the bedroom next week. I am currently waiting to hear when the big digger is coming to dig the BIG hole in the backyard. I'll share more photos as the project progresses.