Big blue earth worms!

Today was a good day to dig! We had very nice weather for working outside. While we waited for the septic tank and leach line to show up, Adam and John used the excavator to do some other earth moving that was going to be needed. We continued to wait, and they decided to continue digging out the leach line trenches.

Digging the second trench

Then the truck showed up. The leach lines that they used don't require gravel in the trenches. The pipes are surrounded by Styrofoam peanuts in a netting. This will take the place of the gravel that would be used in a traditional system. The leach line sections, looked like giant blue earthworms stacked on the back of the truck.

The concrete box on the front is my septic tank, and the stack of blue tubes, is the leach line.

Leach line sections

To install the septic tank, the driver backed the truck up to the hole, and used a hoist that extends beyond the back of the truck to set the tank down.

John watches as the hoist picks up the tank, and moves it toward the back of the truck.

As the tank moves back, the driver adjusts the position of the hoist, to put the tank in the right spot over the hole.

In it goes

John checks to make sure the tank is sitting level

The tank has rubber covering the openings which can be used for inlets and outlets. John cut an opening in one of the covers, and put the line from the house into it.

It will all flow in through this pipe

Then John checked for proper slope on the rest of the pipe.

Making sure the pipe slopes down toward the tank

Now a brief intermission...

I had some of these in the field last year, they are quite pretty.

So as it got finished up, here is a tour of the system. For my own reference, and for those who will be asking me questions about how my system is installed :-)

Start at the house, and head west

Over to the tank

In one end...

...and out the other.

Through a diverter to one half of the field or the other.

With enough usage, the water will flow from one section of leach line, over a small rise, and down into the next section

Tomorrow, it gets inspected, and if all goes well, it will be all covered before we get rain this weekend.

Next week, we are going to try to get the concrete work finished on the house. Then I will be able to park in my garage!