Building the Homestead: Dirt Work

We haven’t done much this summer except put in a sewer system (YAY!!!) But we did do some dirt work, such as clearing a few trees for our next addition, re-grading the yard, and cleaning up the driveway.

Clearing Trees

I hated to loose the few trees remaining on the East side, but they were right in the way of our planned addition (master bedroom, bath, dining room, and garage). So, we called in our favorite dozer operator, Paul, and he made quick work of it (these pictures and videos are for the grandkids; enjoy them Zach, Spencer, Brayten, Kayden, Ellie, Addy, and Samuel):


Before	After

Re-Grading the Yard

Water flows downhill. What a surprise! Short story is that I didn’t site the house in the best spot so we needed to tweak the surrounding grade to move the water away from the house, not under it. While the dozer was here, we put him to work on it and I must say, the results were good. He removed about two feet from the high spot, created a gentle swale, and re-graded a slope. Moved a lot of dirt and I was pleased with the results. Again, a video of a bulldozer doing what it does best (for the grandkids--and us big kids too):

Some before and after shots:


Before	After

	After

Now if we can just get some grass to grow. The drought and heat has made that difficult. May have to wait until fall.

Removing the Old Sidewalk

I had poured a sidewalk when we poured some footings a couple years ago, but alas, it was the wrong size and in the wrong place. Besides, I broke a corner off when operating a large forklift doing the roof. I was figuring I’d rent a jack hammer or do it the old fashioned way with a sledge. Paul’s idea was much easier. This was fun to watch:

Re-Working the Driveway

The driveway was first put in a couple years ago (by Paul) and it held up pretty good. But, we used “0 to 6” rock which is good for a road base on dirt, but not very smooth. It was time to finish the job and bring in some #1 road base, which is small broken gravel (chat) and a lot of lime, which packs good. Now we don’t tear the truck apart checking the mail. Here are some before and after shots:


Before	After

Before	After

Sewer

Maybe not dinner-table small-talk, but probably our most appreciated improvement was the addition of a “lagoon” and a flush toilet. We’d been using a compost toilet—maybe it was some need for personal penitence—but it did actually work pretty well. I just got tired of the chore of dumping the bucket every few days. It wasn’t my favorite activity. Enough said.

Oh the wonders of modern plumbing. I could write a sonnet on the subject. Maybe some other time, right? A lagoon is pretty common out here in the Missouri country side. It’s basically a hole (20 feet across and five feet deep) with the 4” sewer line dumping into it. It fills up with (mostly) water, forms a film of algae on the surface, doesn’t smell, is pretty cheap to put in, never needs servicing (like a septic tank needs pumping), and will last about 20 years before it might need to be cleaned out.

We put it back behind the tree line about 120 feet from the house. Just make sure the grandkids don’t decide to take a swim. It’s recommended to put a fence around it (for this very reason). That will come. It was a great day when I finally hooked up the toilet and removed the sawdust bucket and compost “Lovable-Loo”: