WOW
@flowerbug! I just took a look at your blog. You do have a LOT of water! I’m not sure what your average rainfall is, there in Michigan, but it MUST be more than our’s here in Texas! When we moved to Texas, from PA, following our daughter, to Dallas. We looked for land in the NE quadrant, of TX, because when DD was small, my EX- and I moved to Lakeworth, in NW Ft. Worth. Average rainfall there is 32” and I remember how difficult it was to maintain a garden there. I remember 1981 when we had over 90 days of 100+ degree days. It was MISERABLE! So, when DH and I moved to TX, I looked to see where there was more rain, so it wouldn’t be so hard to grow a garden. Average rainfall for this area of NE Texas is 42-45”, which makes it do-able. Well, there has been nothing “average” about rainfall here, in the past four years, that we have lived here. In the Winter of 2015, we had an extremely soggy month of December, with 20+ inches of rain. All three roads that lead to our farm were flooded. One road was taped off by the county, as the culvert under the road had washed away. The other two flooded areas were shallow, but I didn’t want to drive on them, because I didn’t know if the road was gone there too. So, we waited for the water to go down. That year, we had 62 inches of rain, which was a record.
2018 started out wet, and in June, the rain clouds dried up and we ended up with a drought. Neglible rain for the next three months and 1/2” cracks in the dirt. Then, in November, the heavens opened up again, and it seemed the rain wouldn’t stop. We ended up the year, with the 2nd highest rainfall amount, at 58.65 inches of rain!!! At least the roads didn’t flood this time! And, the sump pump kept the crawlspace relatively dry.
As far as the aerobic septic, it is a multi-tank system. The sewerage goes into the first tank, where oxygen is added, to faacilitate bacterial growth, to consume the organic parts of the material. Next it moves to a tank where chlorine is added, in the form of tablets, in a tube, which allows water to flow over the tablets, so they gradually dissolve and kill the microbes that make it unhealthy. Once the bacteria are killed the water is filtered and pumped to sprayers, that spray the water over the land. If the chlorine is added properly (which apparently quite a few people don’t do), it is a perfectly safe process. However, since not everyone does it properly, laws have been passed preventing the use of herbs, fruits or vegetables on which the discharge water has been sprayed.
Some people don’t use chlorine at all and some people use swimming pool chlorine tabs (which are cheaper than septic tabs), and which don’t dissolve the way septic tabs do. So, thee bacteria aren’t properly killed, and the discharge spray isn’t safe.
I’m not 100% sure what you mean by “contour detecting”. Is that where you find the high areas and trench around them? If so, I don’t think there are any. We have 4.90 acres. I told my hubby I didn’t want a ”spaghetti ranch” and that’s exactly what we got! 150 feet wide by 1460 feet long. UGH! We currently have about 2-1/4 acred open. It is so difficult to work within a 150 foot width, when placing buildings, paddocks and pastures. We need to add perimeter fencing, but we can’t afford to pay someone to do it, and these old bones only allow so much hard labor. So, we plod ahead, putting one foot in front of the other. It seems like nothing gets done. But, if one looks around, you can see that we have really accomplished a lot since we moved here four years ago.
I have looked at an elevation map, online, and we have a high spot, that is about 500 feet back from the road. The slope goes down, to both ends of the property from there. It’s pretty flat, so there wouldn’t really be any mounds to go around. It’s been a while since I looked at the map, but I think there is a difference of 30 feet from the high spot to the road.
I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but our house is on a solid footer all the way around, with a footer “beam” down the middle, for the length (about 30 feet) of the house. The footer is 24” at the base and 18” at the top. I think it is about 18” high, but the previous owner dug about a foot into the clay (in some spots), when he did the footer. So, there is a crawl space of about 2-1/2 feet, for working space under the house. Although, it isn’t evenly dug, so in some places it is only about a foot between the dirt and a floor joist, making it difficult, for DH when he needs to get under the house for plumbing or electrical. NOT FUN!!!
