PetersCreek
Brother Borealis
The Wife® and I called the septic pumper out to our place back in May to service our tank and they only got 350 gallons out before the hose started pulling rocks. Compromised tank. Not good news. After soliciting bids, we settle on the same company that we called to pump the tank. What an ordeal this has been.
First off, our house is situated oddly at the foot of a mountain. Our "back yard", where the tank is located, is actually to the side of the house. The back side of our place faces uphill with a fairly narrow 'alley' between the house and the hillside. It's the only way to get equipment to the back yard. Trouble is, there was a wood shed built on a deck back there, blocking the way. Our whole house generator is on that side of the house, too. The contractor would take care of the generator but to save a bit of money, I elected to demolish the wood shed. What a chore. I hauled off 1¼ tons of construction debris...and a lot of nesting crap the resident squirrel had packed in there over several years.
The contractors couldn't start work until after the July 4th holiday. Yep, the old steel tank was in rough shape but then it was original to the house, built in 1984. If the new one lasts that long, I'm probably be dead.
Getting the new tank in took a little extra doing. We'd had a lot of rain over the few prior days so the ground was really soft. By the time they got down to the required depth of 10 feet, they were just above the water table. It looked like the guy in the hole was walking on a waterbed. But they put in a layer of drain rock and got things firmed up enough to set the tank.
Since our yard is where rocks come to spawn and die, we had them bring in a truck load of top soil so we could have decent grass. They spread it out for us but roughly, so I had to groom it myself. I raked it out evenly and feathered the edges but I didn't have a lawn roller so I did what any self-respecting Alaskan would do: I put on my snowshoes and tramped it down. I must've stomped that yard five times.
All that was left was to spread fertilizer and grass seed, then wait. It seemed like the birds ate a lot of seed and the bears had no respect for my hard work but it's looking pretty good. The picture below show growth from a few days ago and it looks a lot greener now, even if it's still a bit hair-like.
First off, our house is situated oddly at the foot of a mountain. Our "back yard", where the tank is located, is actually to the side of the house. The back side of our place faces uphill with a fairly narrow 'alley' between the house and the hillside. It's the only way to get equipment to the back yard. Trouble is, there was a wood shed built on a deck back there, blocking the way. Our whole house generator is on that side of the house, too. The contractor would take care of the generator but to save a bit of money, I elected to demolish the wood shed. What a chore. I hauled off 1¼ tons of construction debris...and a lot of nesting crap the resident squirrel had packed in there over several years.
The contractors couldn't start work until after the July 4th holiday. Yep, the old steel tank was in rough shape but then it was original to the house, built in 1984. If the new one lasts that long, I'm probably be dead.
Getting the new tank in took a little extra doing. We'd had a lot of rain over the few prior days so the ground was really soft. By the time they got down to the required depth of 10 feet, they were just above the water table. It looked like the guy in the hole was walking on a waterbed. But they put in a layer of drain rock and got things firmed up enough to set the tank.
Since our yard is where rocks come to spawn and die, we had them bring in a truck load of top soil so we could have decent grass. They spread it out for us but roughly, so I had to groom it myself. I raked it out evenly and feathered the edges but I didn't have a lawn roller so I did what any self-respecting Alaskan would do: I put on my snowshoes and tramped it down. I must've stomped that yard five times.
All that was left was to spread fertilizer and grass seed, then wait. It seemed like the birds ate a lot of seed and the bears had no respect for my hard work but it's looking pretty good. The picture below show growth from a few days ago and it looks a lot greener now, even if it's still a bit hair-like.
