The Septic System...

Anyone who's been waiting for an update on this blog can send a thanks to my comment leaving cousin, Sheri.  The blog often gets neglected for a variety of reasons but when I see someone leaving a comment it reminds me that people actually do check the blog.

The house has been taking shape nicely...the weather has calmed a bit from the heavy rains we've had all winter so we figured it was time to take care of the septic installation.  When we bought the property way back when, an attractive feature was the newly installed septic field which was approved for a four bedroom house; evidently the previous owner was planning on building and never did.

Installing Septic systems can be a huge cost when building on rural properties so this was a bonus for us.  We decided to track down the company that originally installed the septic field and hire them to upgrade the system for the new house.  They remembered the property and informed us that we'd be able to use the current field and simply bury new tanks outside the house and then pump out to the field which is closer to the front of the property.  We would also be able to use the current pump and electronics.

The system is a gravity fed variety that sees waste from the house flushed into the first of two large tanks that are in series.  The solids settle in the first tank with the liquids flowing into the second tank where it is then pumped about 300 feet out to the field where bacteria do their thing before the liquid is absorbed into the ground.

.Ryan, the septic guy, had a couple of concrete tanks delivered but as luck would have it, the rain started and lasted for about week.  This was a problem because everytime we dig a hole, it immediately begins to fill with water and even though the tanks weigh upwards of nine tons, they will float if surrounded by water.

  The following week we had three days of sun and decided it was go-time.  Ryan arrived with his excavator and started digging the first of two large holes to accomodate the tanks. 

Usually, a crane truck is brought in to lift the tanks into the holes but for unknown reasons the crane truck was delayed and Ryan decided to try and lift the tanks with his excavator.  The first tank would be the challenge as it weighed close to 20,000 pounds which was maxing out the lifting capacity of the excavator.   As Ryan began to move the tank we could see the whole machine was on the edge of tipping over.  Keeping it low, he managed to swing the tank from one side of the driveway to the other side and into the hole.  The second tank was quite a bit smaller and easier to manouver into place.  After the pipes from the house were attached to the tanks,

a trench was dug towards the back of the mobile where the existing tanks are situated and pipe was laid and backfilled. When we are ready to move into the house, Ryan will have to come back and disconnect the current tanks from the field and hook up the new pipe to the field.  At that point the pump will be removed from the current system and installed in the new tank and the electronic control panel which controls the pump will be moved from the mobile to the house.

As luck would have it, two weeks after the tanks were installed we had some heavy rains and noticed the larger of the two tanks was tilted.... water had collected around the tank and it started floating.  Ryan came back a few days later and managed to use the excavator to push it back down level, he then used the water hose to fill the tank and add weight to help it stay put.  It's been a few weeks since then and the tank hasn't moved.  We'll be back filling on top of it in the coming weeks and should be able to quit worrying about it.