September 11, An unexpected expense

This past week we had an interesting (?) incident with the Sky Trac. That's the big machine that is used for lifting such things as roofing or sheet rock or ladders as you see in the picture below. It is also handy for lifting people up high to work on installing siding etc. It had been used up close to the house on the west end for putting up siding or soffits when it fell in a hole.
When we first heard about that, we didn't get too alarmed as there are many small holes in our yard due to dogs and other smaller animals digging. When we finally checked out the hole, we discovered it was sizable and in a very suspicious location. Denis got a five foot long walking stick to check out the length and depth of it.


As he poked around, he could tell he was hitting something hard other than tree roots. We began to have the uneasy feeling that the hole was above the septic tank. The fact that the hole was filling up with water lent credence to that suspicion. Surprisingly, the smell was not that noticeable so we were still in doubt.


Then Rick, the contractor, got a back hoe operator here to dig out the hole enough to confirm that it was indeed the old septic tank. Actually, it was a relief to find out that it was the septic tank and not a cave or sink hole that was going to swallow up our house before it was finished.


Metal tanks are no longer allowed. Today the tanks must be concrete and you can see why when you look at this piece of the old tank, riddled with rust holes. Roots from the adjacent elm tree had penetrated the tank also. This tank did not have much life left in it anyway so it's just as well that we corrected the problem now.

This is a shot of the end of the tank. It looks a lot like the tanks we store gas in for the farm. Maybe it was. Who knows.

Here's the hole, almost ready for the new concrete tank. You can see how the old tank went up under the edge of the furnace room. Fortunately it didn't go so far as to cause the foundation to sag and it only required filling in with rocks and not concrete for support.

Here's a picture of the elm tree that crowds the septic tank area. I lobbied to save the tree and you can see why. It's a big beautiful tree that provides lots of shade for that west end of the house. Whether it will live or not is up for debate. Many of the roots were damaged during the digging up of the old tank. At least we are giving it a fighting chance. The new concrete tank is in now and should last for the rest of our lives at least and probably many more than that.