Birdstump Barn

Discoveries at the homestead

The weekend was a great one....beautiful, sunny, and warm!  We spent a good deal of time out at the property on Saturday, and it was in the mid-60s most of the day. 

We went out bright and early Saturday morning to meet a soil morphologist and a guy with a little digging machine to do a test on the soil to see what sort of a septic system we will need to put in.  The good news is that we have options.  There is an area down towards the creek - but not too close! - that they said has 'some of the best soil we've seen in a long time', as far as its suitability for putting in a traditional drainfield system.  Up by where the house will go is much more clay-ey, and in that direction would work great for a lagoon, if that is what we want.  So now it will come down to what I'm sure will be the overlying theme of this whole project - aesthetics vs. cost.   A lagoon costs less to put in than a traditional system.  At least, that's what we've been told.  So now we need to get some actual bids, to find out some specific details.

But, for now, our project has started with its first official expense.  I figure I will try to log ever last cent we spend here, for our own reference, and for the sake of anyone else who ever wants to try anything like it.  (We've been very frustrated by the lack of specifics that we have been able to find.  We get lots of , "Pretty inexpensive", or "Fairly costly", or "not much at all", or "Only another 25% more to get...."  But when it comes down to hard numbers, everyone seems to be seriously lacking. 

So, the cost of a soil morphology test:  (and here's the latest blessing)

We were quoted $250 for the test guy's fee + $180 for the digger guy's fee.  The test guy actually only billed us $200.  All I can figure is he took pity on a large family (with pretty cute kids, I might add, ;-)) with a small budget.  He was the nicest guy, and I would highly recommend him to anyone in the area needing this kind of work done. 
So, grand total for that: $380.

The second discovery of the day out at the homesite was the extent of the crevice filled with old dumped stuff.  During the summer, we could only see a very small portion.  In fact, we had just been saying how lucky we were that the amount of dumped trash was so minimal. Well, we found more.  It almost looks like someone long ago had started to dig out the perimeter of a pond - the area is just a long, winding, almost a full circle, but not quite, trench, filled with goodness knows what - half the old homestead house, it looks like!  A lot of old lathe, broken windows, some metal farmish looking stuff, and a whole lot of wood and branches.  So we'll have quite the project of pulling out all the wood that is burnable, and figuring out what to do with the rest.  It's quite brushy and prickly in that area, but this time of the year is the best as far as all the undergrowth being down, so probably next year around this time will be when we'll tackle that.   For now, I'm just glad that it's totally out of the way as far as building...it's on the other side of the creek. 

But...while we were over there, we discovered......a second well!  We had heard that there might be one, but had never seen anything.  But, there it was, all fenced off like the first one, just so overgrown with brush that we had missed it before.  It's right in the middle of the almost-circle dump-trench.  We measured it, and it is about the same depth and diameter of the first well - about 13-14' deep, and about 3' across, hand-dug, rock-lined.  This one is at a lower elevation by several feet, and that may be what accounts for it having quite a bit more standing water in it; 7 feet of standing water, as opposed to the one closer to the house site, which only has about 3 feet. (Although, we checked that quite awhile ago....maybe it has more now, too?) 

Anyway, we're thrilled to have a second well, and today we're borrowing a friend's generator, and we're going to go out with a sump pump and a ladder and a bucket and some other sundry things, and see what we do about pumping out, cleaning out, and seeing how quickly they refill.  Wish us luck!

So I'm curious...

03:32, Monday, March 12, 2007 .. Posted by melm

How do you go about finding out (perhaps from the county or something?) why there are two wells? My concern is that perhaps there was a problem with one. But on the flip side, maybe there were two buildings at some point that each needed a well? Or they liked the view better by the other one and moved the house? It sure does sound interesting, this whole process. I WANT PICTURES! *grin* And yes, of the cute kids too. Ma told me about her phone call from E3 the other day. Too stinkin funny. ;-)

I hope that in the "dumped" items there will be things that you can re-use or recycle one way or another. Perhaps if it's something you can't use there is enough scrap metal or wood that a local business might pay for it? Now that would be right handy too.

OH! And you need an Etsy shop, girl! With the way you sew...mmhmmm, you need an Etsy shop. Good way to bring in a bit here and there like you did when y'all were buying the first house out here!!!

Untitled Comment

11:19, Monday, March 12, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

Carrie,
Wasn't it gorgeous today?!!
Did you notice I was driving by on the hwy when you were on your way home? :) I hope you enjoyed the day, the sun and your property!

Blessings,
gloria