Dirt Slinging Mama

Yay! We passed our septic system inspection.

Jer and I left early Friday to meet the inspector at our property. In the midst of hurriedly unloading our weekend contents into our camping trailer, we noticed a truck down in front of our house. The inspectors first comment was, “I thought no one was here.” Glad we made it in time.

Our prayer had been the job would pass with flying colors, and it did. The inspector shared that he had been a little concerned because Jer had called several times to clarify specifics. He even was going to suggest a subcontractor but once there, he told us it was one of the better jobs he’d seen done. We still have to trench to the house, connect the sewer line to the house, draw a to scale drawing of the system, and add hatches to the septic vault, but after that we just send pictures to him and we are good to go.

So, you might ask, what is the slinging dirt all about?

After having been told not to put the system lower than twelve inches, with the arch at nine inches, the inspector now wanted a minimum of six inches of dirt over it all. He highly suggested twelve inches over the top but looked around and wondered where we’d find the dirt to cover it. While there were high spots where we had dug out, there were areas that were almost level with the ground.

With shovels in hand, Jer and I dug and tossed dirt for four hours over a ten by fifty foot area on Friday and Saturday to cover the septic system. We couldn’t get our tractor in to push the dirt. It was too risky. We didn’t want to crack a pipe. The tractor did came in handy to grab soil from around the house to put over the level areas. But, man oh man, we were tired.

My hands hurt. My shoulders, elbows, and even my feet hurt. I got a blister with my gloves on. Jer wore the skin right off a spot on his hand, but the job is done. Sunday morning, we did a few things, but weariness still lingered. We decided to leave early and just be grateful this one big thing is behind us.