This pool is roughly about 500,000 gallons. I've been building it for 29 years. "Turn it on and let
a rip" I designed and built all the filtration systems, the pumping system, the waterfall
systems. As far as any kind of private backyard pool, this is the largest that I'm aware of. We
have our welcome bea, he's a cedar handcarved. Kind of make the place look a little friendly if
you like bears. Come on through. I had a furniture store that I made a living with .This is my hobby.
A lot of people hunt, some play golf, I just build this in my backyard. It's about 95 ft across both
directions at the widest point. The sand in the shallow is a total of 18 pickup loads of sand
and it's deep enough you can walk on it and not hit the bottom. One of my favourite features is
the waterfall feature. You can sit behind it, look through it or stand up and let it fall on you and
so forth. All of flowers, the horticulture, My wife does. We wanted a natural setting, my wife
she didn't think she could stand looking at those blue and white balls on a rope kind of dividing
the shallow from the deep. After a little while we thought about it and we got all our ducks in a row
and there they are. If you actually drop a plum line straight off the end of the board it hits
the wall at about 12 ft but by the time you just step off where you would hit the water at 15 ft.
[Music]My grandsons will do a lot of flips, dives one and a half. That's a one and a quarter. "That
looks painful" Usually somebody ties a rope on a tree branch and a rope swing is just fun and I
thought well if we're doing a kind of old time natural setting, you got to have a rope swing.
I don't have a big tree here so got a telephone pole and put it there. It's got about 3 yards of
concrete total holding it down back here. It's been there now 22 years and everything's still
going quite well with it. So rope swing gets a lot more use than the diving board. I could
swim literally before I can remember. I was a scuba instructor for several years, years ago.
I always wanted a pool that was big enough and deep enough you could swim around and have room,
but I also didn't want just a flat concrete deck I wanted something with character I like
rocks I like waterfalls I like streams. When I was 39 after bought the house I thought if I'm
going to do it it's time to start working on it. [Music] They're taking a break to have a little
mud bath. We dug the hole starting Labor Day of '93, got an agricultural pond liner from Co-op.
"Almost over...there it goes there it goes there it goes!" Some of the neighbours helped and we
spread that plastic out which was fun spreading a 3,000lb piece of plastic. Then I dug a well
to fill this with cause I knew this was going to take more water than what I wanted to be buying
from utility company. "Now we finally got our well going we've got good quality water but it's only
putting out about 7 eight gallons per minute, but we're already enjoying it." This is the
barrel that holds my well water hose. This fills up the pool. Because it's 500,000 gallons it takes
it 3 months running 24/7 to fill up the pool. It has been filled completely from empty three
times. Jane: "Last time we recorded we've put the water in through the winter now it's spring" I
had several pipes that went all the way around the dam, the top one had a hole drilled every 9 inches
rotating different angles through the PVC to help aerate it, to also keep it from getting stagnant
That plastic liner lasted about 5 years and then we replace that with a rubber liner. That's when
we did the waterfall and 80% or so of the rock work above water now that you see. Although I
designed everything, I did not know how to do the artistic work or have the skills to
do the art work. I called the zoo to see who did their exhibits and they told me his name,
Bernard Meck, he's done most of the rock work. He did did the tree, he did the tree roots,
he did the tree stump. Everything above water he did one handful at a time. That rubber liner ended
up lasting uh 14 years, when it died that's when we used the spray on concrete and it's been there
now 10 years and we've had no problems with it so. Been asked several times how much the pool cost. I
have estimates but I really don't know cause it's been done over 29 years. Chlorine is the biggest
constant cost. We'll use about 100 lb of tablets a week, I'll use a barrel about every two weeks with
that many tablets. Electricity is probably about $200 a month on a year round basis. Last year
I kept up with all of my costs, not counting my labor and let's just say a lot. Watch your step,
no steps are created equal. Now this is the pump that runs the main system. The filtration system,
I talked to pool builders and they were going to cost a lot more and have large three-phase
motors and pumps and I thought I had an idea that would work better. I went to three different pool
builders and said "what do you think of this idea?" they all three said that won't work. So
I thought I'll try it and we'll see. Jane: "We didn't get any water yet, we reprimed the the
pump. Mickey's holding that see if it'll work this time. Turn it on and let er' rip. Water!"
There's a pit under the bottom down there that's 6 ft deep 16 ft wide 32 ft long. As the guy doing
the concrete said "you realize your filter here is bigger than most pools that we build?" At the
bottom of that has 459 ft of well strainer casing which is like a PVC pipe looks like somebody shot
razor blades through it. Slits will let water go through but will not let sand go through. It has
5 ft of sand on top of it and then about a foot of space and we have those panels that cover
it up so people don't stir up top of the sand. Gravity pushes water at a very slow rate of speed
through the sand, comes out really clean and the pump pulls it out from the bottom bottom returns
it right under the surface. 30 years later it's still working. "1,2,3 go!" My kids and grandkids
all like to swim here. My kids grew up with it swimming in it. We have friends and family,
we've had people who've brought ball Teams or Scout Troops. We've had several people over
the years that kind of enjoy it, but primarily the reason I built it that big is that's why I wanted
it. From the little Dream as a kid till now almost 60 years later now this is where we're at. As long
as I'm here you know it's here I'll be taking care of it as long as I can. Several people asked me
you know what's going to happen to this when I'm gone I said the only thing I really know for sure
is it won't be my problem. My 500,000 gon backyard pool is the Coolest Thing I Ever Made. [Music]
Cameraman :"One more time! I love the I love the jumping in the background!" (laughs)