A farmer based in Carnaross, Co. Meath, has come up with a creative way to cool down in the current heatwave.
Michael Farrelly of Kieran Cross, has been busy building a swimming pool that is an impressive 40ft long, 10ft wide and 4ft deep.
Speaking to Agriland about how the idea came about, Michael said: “We were at home on Saturday evening (July 16) and my two nephews, Thomas and Eamonn, wanted to make a bit of a pool.
“So we started looking around the farm to see what we could use.”
“We had these 8×4 square bales of straw and we put them together to form the outline of the pool,” he continued.
“Then to reinforce the frame, we had Intermediate Bulk Container (IBC) cubes and round bales of hay and we put them outside the bales to support the pool.
“We had a spare silage cover that measured 75ftx45ft that will be used to cover the silage pit in future so we said we would use it for this job first.”
All materials that he used to put the swimming pool together, including the water, will be reused for other purposes, he said.
“I have a bulk tank for harvesting rainwater from the farm and when the pool is being taken apart, the water will be returned to storage in the rainwater tank and used for farm use.
“We used the rainwater tank to fill the pool and voila, there we had our pool,” the farmer explained.
Michael noted that the swimming pool is “attracting a lot of interest” but added “unfortunately, we can’t open up to the public”.
“It’s providing great craic for the family; there [are] some of us in and out of it all the time and we’re making the best of the good weather,” he said.
“It could all end very quick if someone puts a puncture in it so we’re being extra careful,” the Carnaross farmer laughed.
Michael is a dairy farmer as well as a partner in Killian’s Lodge Hotel with Tracy Cooney and also has a haulage company Castlekeerin Transport.