First Weekend, First Crisis...

Well. First weekend as homeowners, and first crisis.

We had A LOT of rain over the last few days and the ground is still pretty frozen. We didn't really think anything of it, until we glanced out the window.... to see water coming up out of the lid to our septic tank.

Thankfully that water was clear, but it was running like a bubbler! Then we had the bright idea to poke our heads down into the crawl space beneath the house and, lo and behold, a foot of dirty water was staring at us.

After some walking around, splashing and mud- we came to the general conclusion that A) living on an incline is going to be problematic and B) something needed to be done. Very basic channels were made with feet and sticks (thanks Carrie!), and we headed off to lunch and brainstorm.

Basically we decided the following:

1. The amount of water running from the property across the road added to the snow melting on our property was enough to overwhelm the leach field. It was backing up (the septic inspection we had showed that the field was in very good shape) into the tank (which is mostly empty, as no one has been living there). All the rain and groundwater was just pushing up against the lid and bubbling out.

2. We have no idea where the water from under the house came from. It's not a full basement, so it's likely that it's the same runoff problem, but taking a different path.

3. We should probably get a sump pump, and also dig a real ditch to divert the water from over the leach field.

So, off to Home Depot we went (I feel like I should just start signing over our paychecks to them...). One shovel, a sump pump and some tubing later, we were back home. Of course, when we looked down in the crawl space again, all the water was gone! Ok- not ALL of it, but we went from about 10" to 4". We decided to keep the pump and set it up anyway. It just seems safer. We don't have it running yet, but we will.

Then Carrie went out to play in the mud while I went back to painting trim. About 20 minutes and some fun with a shovel later, she came back in. The water was now running adjacent to our leach field instead of into it. We're probably going to need to have a chat with the folks who live behind us, because we don't want to flood their property either. I'm hoping for some good old fashioned neighborhood cooperation. We'll see.

Anyway. We got less done than we'd have liked to today, but at least we got our first major crisis out of the way. Only marginal panic. The yard was even starting to look less marshy when we left!