fingers and sandy soil.....

When we moved in our home 6 yrs ago, we knew it had a septic tank and well water. We knew we would have to have the tank cleaned out every so many years. What we did NOT know (but we have a feeling the previous owners did) was that the fingers (the pipes that slowly drain the septic water out into the yard) were the original ones from when the house was built back in the 50's. We had constantly had water coming up in the yard right by the tank. We assumed it was due to the tank being full. So we called the first people we found in the phone book to come pump it out. It did not go away. In fact it got worse. We had them come pump it out again.....they cracked our lid and said it was our fault.....grrr. So we lived with this ever growing muck in our yard.

Finally I had had enough. I found a different company right near us that would come out and see what was going on and not charge us to diagnose the problem. We found the greatest company. It's family owned and take their reputation very seriously and are very honest people. They could not find the "fingers" so they had to come back with the back hoe and dig to find them......Now here's a little info you may not know, I sure didn't. Years ago (like when our system was put in) they wanted you to put the fingers way down underground so they wouldn't flood your yard. Ours were like 4 ft underground. In the last 20 yrs or so, they figured out it's better to go only 2 ft so the ground dries quicker. Long story short, all ours were disenegrating AND needed brought up to the 2 ft level. So the deal was struck and the job scheduled, and rescheduled and rescheduled, as mother nature kept deciding to drop rain down on us when they were supposed to come out. Finally the day arrived, and so did my aunt for her scheduled visit and my nephew, needing to be babysat AND my brother and his friend to help swap out refridgerators for me......because around here no day ever goes as planned! lol It was definetly an interesting process....

Last year I had planted my garden out in front of the shed in the middle of the yard. It was too big and I decided to move it and make it smaller. Thank you Jesus for looking out for me, or as you can see, the "finger's" would have reached right through my garden and THAT is not the extra pair of hands I needed in the garden!

I don't know what I was expecting, but I was startingto be concerned that they were going to go over all the way into the pool! lol But we were all facinated by how fast they worked! The started in the morning and finished up just after lunch!

Here you can see the "rows" for each finger. As they finished one, and dug the next, he just dumped the dirt on the previous row so all you saw was the front of the opening. The crew was very impressed with my sandy soil. They said it is a dream for a septic owner and if all their jobs were that easy they would LOVE doing them. I've always wanted to be admired for my sandy soil.....all girls secretly do!

Wow! They certainly did expose quite a bit of my beautiful sandy soil! It got turned every which way. My aunt and mom were wondering if they were going to flatten all that soil out before they left.....

Wonder no more "Louie" and his trusty back hoe (which may I add, he was sooo good with. You would think it was his actual hand they way he had control over those things!!! He could probably pick roses without crushing them as gentle as he could move that thing!) to the rescue!! *** Note, the large pile of "weeds" to the left of his picture was our old melon patch that also had a pile of sod from the old garden on it. Because it was a pile of dirt, we could not mow it and it was becoming a weed garden. Good ol' Louie, took that hand of his and flattened it out for me! What a guy!!!

And in no time flat, so was the ground! The final product! Took about 15 minutes off my mowing time! HAHA! Now we have to wait until Sept to plant grass seed so it all has time to settle. And the final word from Louie (and I am guessing God speaking through him) no more gardens or digging over the area. It could mess with the drainage. I had been contemplating trying again, too, after watching a video. I guess God decided He'd had enough of THAT garden! hee hee!