The Silver Lining

Our house is constructed into the side of a hill in such a way that, without steps, you can walk out of the basement in the front and out of the kitchen in the back. During a rainstorm earlier in the year, we noticed a lot of water coming into the basement in a hard-to-access area. So, I did what any normal person would do - mounted the backhoe to the tractor and dug a trench beside the house that extended lower than the foundation. The water problem immediately went away.

So now, two months later, I've fixed the various holes in the concrete block, applied a coat of black tar-like goo as a sealant,put drainage pipe and gravel into the bottom of the trench and started closing up the trench. But I had to dig a bit more trench in order to extend the pipe out to a good "stopping point". Trusty backhoe and I set out to dig this 20' section. But we hit something hard. Very hard. A bit more work and found that we hit something square. And flat on top. But here's the "Silver Lining" part. Not only did we finally discover the long lost septic tank (that isn't even close to where the previous owner's diagram shows), but we found BOTH the cleanout and inspection hatches with the backhoe WITHOUT buggering up either one. If we hadn't had the water leak, I'd likely have never found the tank.

It's funny how, as one ages, one gets excited about strange things.