Maine's Own Off Topic Thread - Part 4 (Calais, Lee: moving van, install)

[Submariner]

Hey !

It's snowing here !



Think it will be enough to justify plowing

Huh huh huh what do you think?

[Future Trooper]

hello Maineahs( would that be the correct term to say?) I hear its snowing there!! I wish it would snow here in Indiana!

[RMoore007]

This old house here in Dover (circa 1850) has an old septic system that is giving us trouble. My plumber just said to go clear the snow, find the hole and then call to have it emptied. Talking to my brother, he remembers back in 1992 that it was emptied and then recovered with cedar logs and gravel. Is this common around here? My great grandfather built the modern kitchen here in 1930. That's when we believe he did his first septic system and got rid of the outhouse.

We already cleared a path (over 100 feet) back to the area to dig. We haven't found it yet but we're working on it today. I've been told by my brother that there is no hole. He doesn't remember seeing one anyway. Are we going to have to rebuild this thing or just make a hole?


Any advice is welcome, as long as you keep it clean.

TIA

[elston]

Originally Posted by gdude

hello Maineahs( would that be the correct term to say?) I hear its snowing there!! I wish it would snow here in Indiana!

It was from your lips to god's ear.....within an hour after I read your post it went from absolutely sunny to near white out....but just as fast it went back to blue skies and sunshine and not a trace of the new snow stuck to the warm roads and driveways.. But bite your tongue about snow.....we are ready for spring....here where I am.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by RMoore007

This old house here in Dover (circa 1850) has an old septic system that is giving us trouble. My plumber just said to go clear the snow, find the hole and then call to have it emptied. Talking to my brother, he remembers back in 1992 that it was emptied and then recovered with cedar logs and gravel. Is this common around here?

In many regions they have laws which require septic tanks to be pumped every 3 years.

Is it common to go 17 years? Sure.

Some systems can go 5 years, other systems can go 40 years.

It depends.

... My great grandfather built the modern kitchen here in 1930. That's when we believe he did his first septic system and got rid of the outhouse.

We are considering building an outhouse this summer.

... We already cleared a path (over 100 feet) back to the area to dig. We haven't found it yet but we're working on it today. I've been told by my brother that there is no hole. He doesn't remember seeing one anyway. Are we going to have to rebuild this thing or just make a hole?


Any advice is welcome, as long as you keep it clean.

TIA

In theory the 'tank' should be a tank. Though I have seen old Cadillacs used, any huge old car could have been used as a shell. Once buried it would form a cavity for the bacteria to work in.

If he remembers seeing timbers put over it: I could see that the tank might be topless, depending on the timbers as a lid. To keep it from caving in.

Or the timbers were placed there to take the weight of anyone driving a car over the spot.

Some 'tanks' are stone laid to form walls with timber over the top.

I recently bought a new tank for our house. I paid around $500 delivered.

Once your tank is open, you might want to replace it with a new tank.

Ours is plastic, 1250 gallons and one man can push it around and into position., It is really light.

[tankratt]

Originally Posted by RMoore007

This old house here in Dover (circa 1850) has an old septic system that is giving us trouble. My plumber just said to go clear the snow, find the hole and then call to have it emptied. Talking to my brother, he remembers back in 1992 that it was emptied and then recovered with cedar logs and gravel. Is this common around here? My great grandfather built the modern kitchen here in 1930. That's when we believe he did his first septic system and got rid of the outhouse.

We already cleared a path (over 100 feet) back to the area to dig. We haven't found it yet but we're working on it today. I've been told by my brother that there is no hole. He doesn't remember seeing one anyway. Are we going to have to rebuild this thing or just make a hole?


Any advice is welcome, as long as you keep it clean.

TIA

If you can find where the pipes leave the the house and head outside, that way you have a line of sight or idea where the septic should be. As far as the wood goes, it could be a wood tank, I have removed several wood tanks before, mostly on railroad property, so a cedar tank would not be unheard of, and it may finally be giving out frost heave and moisture. Also check with the county and see if a permit had been applied for in the last 30 years to see if any updates were done. Just a few ideas hope they help.

[RMoore007]

Thanks fb and t. I think we know where it is by using the line of site you suggested and looking at old video's that my dad made around the property. I've had my nephew and his friend dig all over down there and still no luck. They've gone down about 3-4 feet with a metal probe, a post hole digger and picks. We're waiting for tomorrow now to have a local resident come over who is an expert in such matters. He's a finder.
Then we'll see what we've got. Probably updating the system is in order.

I do remember my parents being very prudent with the flushes and drains during the winters out here. We hadn't been concerned about it much as my parents were snowbirds every winter since the mid to late ninties and closed up this old place every winter. Since '03 and '04, both have moved out to the old cemetary and left us with the property to care for. Now we have several people here all the time and is an anchor property for all the local relatives. So the sytem is in overload I believe and it finally caught up with us.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by BrokenTap

My brother just graduated this year as a home schooler. I guess I was surprised when he was one of only 13 seniors that graduated from home school. I kind of figured there would be more, but I guess they really drop off at the high school level.

Association of Homeschoolers of Maine

We were members of Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) to over 10 years, they are a great group.

They have over 70,000 member families, and only a small minority of homeschooling families join HSLDA. Maybe 1 family out of 5 finds they need legal assistance homeschooling. I would not be surprised if there are over a half million homeschool families in the US of A.

I have no idea of how many homschool families exist in Maine.

There is no database of them.

Looking at the 'homeschoolersofmaine' website I do not see how many member families they have. 13 grads a year does sound very low. If you have the same number in each grade-level that would imply a total of 156 students.

[Future Trooper]

Originally Posted by elston

It was from your lips to god's ear.....within an hour after I read your post it went from absolutely sunny to near white out....but just as fast it went back to blue skies and sunshine and not a trace of the new snow stuck to the warm roads and driveways.. But bite your tongue about snow.....we are ready for spring....here where I am.

WoW the weather can move that quickly???

I know I love Winter to death but I like my other seasons to.

[dramamama6685]

Originally Posted by gdude

WoW the weather can move that quickly???

I know I love Winter to death but I like my other seasons to.

Hey, gdude.. great to see you over here!