We've begun construction!   April 2nd was the day the backhoe shovel hit the dirt, and here's the progression since...


April 2nd:  Fais started digging the sand filter for the septic system...a 40' x 57' x 9' deep ditch:

 This is an example of what we are aiming to install:

The three pipes in the back take the cleaned septic water (it's been through the sand filter) into the seepage pits.
The complete basal sand filter looks like this before back filling:

April 3-5:

Fais dug down to about 12 feet (the bottom of the trench needs to be flat) and found lots of rock....well actually it's granite/olivine igneous rock:

I needed to get  four seepage pits four feet wide drilled 16 feet below the bottom of the sand filter so the depth is 28 feet in total. I called in Roy Bros Drilling of Malibu - they had the best rates.   

They expected it to take 6-7 days:

The drill they used is basically a very large hole saw (coring drill). They would drill a two foot wide hole and then put the four foot wide bucket on and ream it out.   Here's a view of the drilling from my backhoe:

April 6-19:
Drilling consumed all of these days as the going was slow because of the hard bedrock...and a couple days of rain made the road down to the land too challenging for the drillers.


The boys came up after the rains, and after a 300 ton gravel delivery (which took 5 trips by 8 trucks to deliver), to enjoy the mud and piles of gravel.

A view out to the ocean, overlooking the seepage pits 

Ready to drill

Rock coring with a seam of Gold!

Rain Break

Gravel fun

The view on the road in, on the other side of the mountain

Each one of the seepage pits needed a central pipe in it that will be surrounded by gravel

SDR 35 perforated pipe going in

 April 19:


Drilling is finished...now we need the inspector to come by and see the pits and the central pipe, see the gravel and the machines at the ready to move it in....then we can move to the next step:  filling the seepage pits and digging the sand filter.