Yard Cleanup!

During the winter months, sand and gravel somehow ended up covering over our septic tank area and the risers over the openings in the tank. One riser was barely visible and the other one was buried! 

This was what it looked like shortly after the septic system was installed. Grass seed had been planted and covered with straw. 

This is what it looked like before the cleanup that I did! 

The dirt and gravel on one corner of the generator had washed away. When you live on the side of a mountain, erosion is always an issue! You can expect this to occur! We definitely needed more sand and gravel added. I was concerned that erosion would eventually cause the generator and the pad it sits on to fall down the hill! Most of the sand and gravel that I moved off the septic tank was brought up to the generator! Not a great photo of the “before” but you can see that the generator pad didn’t have much support on the outer corner. 

Here I am working on this project! Video from our security camera! 

And here is the “after!” Both risers are now visible! We have a 4-bedroom septic. It cost only $2,500 to add on the second tank that was needed to make the conversion from 3-bedroom to 4-bedroom septic. The basement has the potential to become a 4th bedroom so we thought it was a good idea to do this right up front. In the scheme of cost for the septic design and installation, $2,500 was quite the deal! This is why we have two risers instead of one. 

Some of the sand and gravel that I moved off the septic was placed here, by our HVAC unit as there was some erosion here as well. 

The bulk of the sand and gravel went to the generator. Here are “after” photos! 

I packed it down as best as I could! 

Another yard project I worked on this past week and finished up yesterday before I started in on the septic tank area was the area by the well. There was a deep hole behind the well with piles of dirt on each side of the hole. Part of the process of digging a well that ended up needing to be 1,000 feet deep and required fracking twice! The location of the well is about a 925-foot elevation. Thus, the bottom of our well is about 75 feet below sea level! I think the river at the bottom of our property is about a 600-foot elevation so our well is about 400 feet below the river bed! Crazy! When our well was at around 700 feet, and after the first fracking, we were barely getting 2 gallons per minute. After getting to 1,000 feet, we were still under 3 gallons per minute! So they fracked the well again and after this we were at 6.5 gallons per minute, which is great! The average new well produces 5 to 6 gallons per minute! If that had not happened, the only option was to try drilling another well in a different location! That would have been BIG bucks and there would have been no guarantees! As it was, drilling to 1,000 feet plus two frackings was big bucks! 

Anyway, here are the “before” photos! 

And here are the “after” photos! Over time, nature will do its thing and this will eventually blend in nicely!