The Saga Continues

So I ended up losing from March until October/November. I was busy with the tour and Mark was busy fighting fires. The fire season lasted until early December that year but I was able to do a little work around the court.

Over the summer the court had drained out and dried up. Then sometime in September a soft area developed at the lowest point of the court. That confounded me for about 2 months. The drier the weather the harder the area became but it never completed dried up like the other areas of the court. We finally figured it out when we did about 5 loads of laundry in one day. The soft area had a little water in it and that water turned a bit sudsy. Turns out we needed to take care of our septic system. It was very very old and the dry well was no longer working so was full and draining to the lowest possible point. We think it might have been from the original "settlers". It was at least 35 years old as I was told by the experts.

That was the next big hurdle. We did not want to do anything to the court until that was taken care of. So we had the septic tank pumped out as it was full. Then they took a little camera gadget attached to a wire line and followed the pipe from our septic tank. It took him to the dry well and sure enough it wasn't very dry. The dry well was also an illegal one and that is how we knew it was so old. They were the kind that little kids in Texas and elsewhere have fallen into and been trapped. New dry wells are filled with gravel while old ones were empty pits covered by brick, concrete and then dirt. The brick and concrete eventually age and deteriorate and fall into the dry well. Then all you have is about 3 feet of dirt over a 30 foot deep pit about 3 to 4 feet wide. Pretty sketchy when you think about how the dirt could give way and someone fall in.

We also applied for a permit for a new dry well and received it but had to jump through a bunch of testing hoops to get it. That ran us around another grand or so and also took about 3 months. Finally got that all taken care of and I dug up the old well and had it pumped out and filled with gravel. We had the new well put in and all the piping ect... for septic tank, old well and new well taken care of.

Now I am sitting on the verge of a new AVP/FIVB season as it is now the end of January and I am out another $6,000. It is also the rainy season and I can't really do any work on the court until it dries out. Also need to find a weekend where both Mark and I can take care of business. Lost of issues to deal with.

So to recap: I am in around $12,000 deep so far and all I have is an unshaped pit in my backyard. I have been at this for a year now and won't be able to do anything more for at least 3 months because of the rains ect... The good part is we have jumped through all the hurdles with the county and neighbors and just need to finish it up. The bad part is I will be spending a lot more money to put sand in as well as shape it up and do the landscaping.