A Turdbox Moon

The sun, the moon, the stars and planets move with such precision that astronomers can predict exactly where they will all be next week and at precisely what time. They can back track 10,000 years and tell you at what point a certain constellation rose over the horizon and where it was on a given date and time. The workings of the universe are filled with precision on an exacting scale.



I live in a different world. I have a turdbox that sank an inch and a quarter over the winter. The effluent must now overflow the tank and move uphill a short distance faster than it can leak from the tweaked rubber gasket seal around the drain line to get to the drain field. That is if I could create effluent in the turdbox, but I can't. Even having sunk an inch and a quarter, as I suspected last fall, my turdbox is too high. My terlet will not flow into this turdbox using the basic principle of gravity.



The leaning apple trees of the drain field wait patiently for a solution to the troubles with the turdbox.



An adjustment is in order. I dug a five foot deep hole to find the drain line on the opposite side of the cabin from the turdbox. Some measuring found that the drain line drops three feet along this distance when only 14 inches is needed. That leaves 22 inches to play with. More than enough to have gravity flush my terlet into the turdbox without having a main sewer line suspended in the air on the way to its destination.

The turdbox will need to be pumped or siphoned dry and dropped another 18 inches deeper. Then the drain line can be reset along the run next to the cabin. With a trackhoe that won't be much more difficult than adjusting the line of rocks in the roadside vegetable garden to a more pleasing and uniform appearance.

It felt so much better after the rocks lining the flower bed had been fixed. No more squiggly line to bother me or the planes flying over head. Plus I gained a bit more room in the vegetable garden.



The septic system installer is coming by this afternoon to have a look at things. Hopefully he will agree to our preferred solution of lowering the tank at minimal or no cost without a lot of fuss. I do not want to have a digesting pump in my future. It is just another thing to buy, install, power and maintain.



Gravity is free and predictable. I want some of that kind of precision for my turdbox.