Treasure Hunt ...

As part of the design of our new septic system, we had to get a perk test. You simply dig a two foot deep hole, pour some water in, and measure the time it takes the water level to drop by an inch. Our trusty engineer Lou performed that test a few weeks back, and we were perky!!!

In addition to the perk test, the department of sanitation requires a deep test, which simply examines the composition of the soil to a depth of about five feet. I would have dug the hole, actually we needed two, but instead we had our neighbor's brother-in-law, who runs a mini-excavation business, help us out on that one.

A mini-excavator can come in handy, and it took Jim only half an hour or so to dig those holes.


The first hole is on the parking lot side of our property, which acts as potential expansion of our septic field, if we ever ran into trouble. It happens so that on this property used to be a school house, which was in use until some time after World War II, and the excavation brought forth pieces of the old foundation, piping, and a kitchen sink.

The second hole is next to our cottage (soon to be ex-cottage), which is where our septic system will be installed. This hole had less rocks and junk in it, but after only a shovel full, the digger had cracked an underground pipe. First we thought it might be the sewer pipe for the cottage, but I flushed the toilet, and nothing came out. I don't know what the pipe is for, but who cares, soon it will be dug up and discarded.


So Jim continued digging, and just was finishing up, when something white appeared. On one of its last scoops, the excavator had hit the cottage's sewer pipe, and put a nice hole in it.

Although we are going to tear down the cottage soon, it is still inhabited, and therefore I went to put a temporary fix around the hole in the sewer pipe.


Dirk