bird skull, a letter, and more than you ever wanted to know about septic system drain fields

You might remember that I found a dead white wing dove in the front yard during one of our hard freezes and as I usually do when I find a dead bird I cut it’s head off and stick it in a fire ant mound. It didn’t come out completely clean and white mainly because I took it out too soon but also because it wasn’t the right time of year. It was wet and cold and the ants were deep underground fasting I suppose. I even tried three different ant mounds and thought I had lost it after the second. when I dug it out of the first one it wasn’t much changed so I put it in a mound that got more sun. That was when I thought a critter had gotten it when I dug it out, better but still icky, intending to get it later in the day and didn’t remember until the next morning and couldn’t find it. The day after that I looked again and it was in plain sight so I put it in a third ant mound. When I dug it out of that it was much cleaner but still had stuff in the skull but I feared losing it for good and brought it in. I’ve worked on it two times with little stiff paint brushes, a piece of wire, and some very pointy tweezers after soaking it and I guess it’s as clean as it’s going to get. 

I’ve got it on the shelf and put it between the cardinal and the mockingbird.

We got a letter from the state about our architectural etched and carved glass studio from which we retired at the end of 2017. We continued selling the cast glass at our annual open house with our other glass artist friends but that stopped after 2020 because of covid and the last time we had any opportunity to sell directly to the public was 2021 when we shared a booth with our friends at the Height’s Artisan Market and although I continued to send work to the gallery I was not responsible for sales tax on those sales. So, the letter. The state is revoking our sales tax permit as a result of zero total sales, zero taxable sales, and zero taxable purchases for the last two years. We no longer will have a business from which we must collect and remit sales tax or for which we can be tax exempt for certain purchases. 

Tuesday I went to empty the kitchen scraps container on what I euphemistically call my ‘compost pile’, more aptly a forage pile for the local wildlife; I never dig any compost or dirt out of it because it’s full of ants. Anyway it’s at the very back of the property and on my way there I came upon a wet spot in the big backyard with several small puddles of water where there should not be especially since it hasn't rained for weeks. This does not bode well. Being out in the county as we are we’re on a septic system, one of the older ones. Our system has three tanks buried in the little backyard. The sinks, the showers, and the toilets drain into the first tank which drains into the second tank which drains into the third tank with a line that pumps the water into the drain field. The drain field is a series of perforated pipes every 3' buried under the back half of the property. I don’t know how deep but I’ve never encountered one while digging back there (turns out the lines are 12" deep). You’re not supposed to put anything on top of the drain field, like buildings mostly, because if something goes wrong it has to be dug up but I figured flower beds wouldn’t matter. So, apparently based on the location of this wet spot it’s the line from the third tank to the drain field that has sprung a leak. So now I have to dig around in that area and find the problem. Hopefully it’s something Rocky can deal with.

Wednesday after digging and cutting tree roots I exposed 30” of pipe. Haven’t found any obvious cracks or leaks. I was starting to hit drier dirt on the left but the surface of the ground on the right is still wet for about 20”. Ideally I’d like to be able to watch when the pump goes on and see where the water is coming from but that will just be lucky timing.

Later…I encountered Rocky on the street while I was walking the dog. He’s got a couple of days before starting his next job so he’s coming with his helper Friday morning.

Thursday…I showered in the morning and as I was leaving for SHARE I checked the hole. It was filled with water.

Later…More digging in the afternoon. I’ve now exposed 6’ of pipe with no obvious cracks or leaks.

Friday…Rocky and his two guys showed up and we put a hose in the access port of the third tank until the pump was activated so they could see where the water was coming from. It started seeping out from underground under the drain field pipe in the middle so now they’re digging up that line and bailing out all the water. So far haven’t found the leak yet.

A little later…They found the leak, a hole in the bottom of the field line about 4’ back. So now they’re digging more around that spot to give Rocky room the get in there and cut out the small section and reconnect the line with a collar.

Later still…Well, fuck. Rocky cut out a section of pipe to show me the hole and that was not the leak, that was the first perfectly drilled perforation in that field line which means that there probably isn’t a leak but a clog somewhere in that line. 

Our drain field consists of 12 field lines 70’ long with an 1/8” hole on the bottom of the pipe every 12”. Small roots can grow into those holes and grow until it’s a mass of roots. So now it becomes a much bigger problem of how to find the clog and how far down it is. One of Rocky’s sons is a plumber so he’s going to borrow Gunnar’s motorized snake and see if they can find the clog that way and determine where to dig. So that’s where we are now. Hopefully it’s not too far down the line.