This has not been a fun project. When we were lifting the tank lid, the neighbor had a light chain holding it up and trying to move it, the chain broke, and has cracked the lid in several places, it even cracked one of the access lids. It looked like they were fairly light cracks so I sealed them with mastic and a layer of strechable tar over that. I had the tank completely covered back up, but the ditch is not filled in yet. It has worked fine this last week! Until this last rain storm that dropped 3 more inches. My leach field is backed up again. I had to dig the secondary tank up and pump it down so we can shower.
We are leaving for a week in Las Vegas, so it will have some time to return to normal. I say some, because we are slated for 4 more days of rain this week, while we will be gone. We already have 5-6 artesian wells that have sprung up on our property. So at least we will not be adding to it. I noticed the cracks near the access hole appear to have widened. Also a chunk from the access lid broke off as well. I am about sick at this point.
When I get back, I will at least look into getting a new top set in place. I am sure it will be in the thousands. I am not confident the neighbors Case 680 will handle it, and I don't want another one broken, so I will have to have a excavator set it, most likely.
Now for the real fun, this past Saturday, about 330pm one of our healthiest valley oak trees (remember we have this rain coming after a 5yr hard drought) that was about 50ft tall, just fell over. The root ball is about 7-8ft high, and our little 20" chain saws cannot separate the trunk from the root ball. It is over 4ft wide at that point. The tree was right beside our main dirt road, and uprooted part of the road. We were about out of propane and the driver refused to drive through the muck. I cant blame him either. My wife came up with getting access from our neighbor going through his gate and coming to our tank from the back way. So at least we got that.
One of the neighbor's sons is gonna start hauling in about 20 tons of gravel tomorrow and I will try to spread it. Our road is almost impassable at this point. Water is coming, through hydraulic pressure, is coming out of the side of one neighbors hillside, and is flooding our road and making it the consistency of wet mortar.
So, the fun continues!
Our NORMAL average annual rainfall in this area is 17". We usually get that rain from about Oct, through March. We got very little rain, until January, and have gotten over 32" in ONE MONTH, and 4 more days of it coming. I am tired of rain!
. When I rewired it, it turns over perfect. 