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| oh, crap. Literally. |
Well, the men are here to clean out the septic tank today....and, it turns out, dig up a significant portion of our yard in order to do it. As it would happen, the previous owner did not install risers -- pipes with caps at surface level, which would have meant all the guys needed to do was open the cap up and stick the hose in to pump the whole thing out.
Instead, they had to dig in order to find the openings in the tank. The tank is 4 feet down, they knew approximately where the tank was but did NOT know where the openings were, so...if you need to bury any bodies today, come on over. I have the perfect spot.
As luck would have it, this area will no longer have any grass on it, so the loss of green is not a big deal. It's another kind of loss of green I'm lamenting...we decided to spend the $500 in order to have the risers installed so they never have to dig up our yard to find the cover again. Add that to the $450 just to have the tank pumped and you have septic shock.
It was a painful check to write. But it had to be done.
In happier news, we wrote an even bigger (yet planned on, so not so bad) check as this project finished up yesterday.We love our pergola with the louvers which open and close. Very good for passive solar heating, we open the shades in winter and close them tightly in summer, or leave them open just a hair in order to let any heat escape. It feels like we have a whole new outdoor room.
Funny, the anticipated checks never bother me much, but the unexpected ones really dampen my mood. But at least I now have a nice shade space to sit and grumble and mull it all over.
So next week we are getting our septic tank pumped. Here in California, one of the requirements to sell a rural property is that you must get a well test and empty your septic tank before new buyers move into the place. Since we moved in June of 2012, it's easy to remember the last time the tank was pumped. It was right before we moved in, while the house was still in escrow.
Since we've been here a little over three years now, we're getting into range for when it will need a pump, and so we'll take care of that next Tuesday. Goodbye, sludge! The range you can go in between pump-outs is calculated by your square footage and how many people you have living in the home. Since we had Groceries, plus Big Ag and myself, plus regular friends and other family who have visited, we figured the estimate of getting it pumped in 3.9 years was good, but could be moved up just a bit. And so, at 3.2 years, we're going for the pump-out.
The other reason we want the septic guys out right now is that we're going to install a flagstone patio on an area which formerly had grass, and I want to be sure -- absolutely positively sure -- we are not going to be placing stones over the septic system, in case it ever needs to be dug up. The odds are it will not overlap, and the odds are even better that we will not need to dig it up, but it never hurts to be on the safe side on either count. So when the guys come out to pump, they are also going to locate our tank and find exactly the dimensions so we can avoid covering anything up.
There's a lot you can do to extend the life of your septic system if you want to avoid trouble: Don't plant trees with invasive roots near the tank, leach lines or leach field. Get the tank pumped out on a regular basis. And although I'm not sure how much good it actually does, the experts say it can't hurt to use RidX or some other kind of bacteria boosting additive to help the waste breakdown process go smoothly and quickly.
Getting the tank pumped is not a glamorous or fun $450 to spend, but it is a necessary cost if we want to avoid something backing up into the house or worse, needing new leach lines or the leach field dug up, which can cost thousands. Luckily we've saved for the pump-out, and so it'll just be a question of writing the check and getting it done. I've already written it into the cost of the patio renovation, as just a little bit of insurance that once the yard is done, we will have taken steps to everything stays good back there for awhile.
Sludge. Leach fields. Decomposing matter inside a tank under your lawn. Just a few of the lesser talked-about, but absolutely necessary parts of rural life. And if you think it's hard living with the responsibilities of a septic system, try living out here and NOT having one! I know which one I'd pick. Bring on the pump-out.
