I’m always down for some good word play, but this title is no joke. It was truly a groundbreaking day of breaking ground at 23 Magnolia. Groundbreaking as in revolutionary, radical, and cutting edge! And ground breaking as in revolutionizing the land, radically changing the way it looks, and literally cutting away the edge of the yard for the septic sand filter. It was incredibly exciting and my first visual evidence of how MASSIVE this project is going to be.
The septic company showed up first thing in the morning to tear apart our yard. The system was already installed when we bought the property, but we decided to update the pumps and electronics before building (always good to give your shit a fresh start!). Unbeknownst to us, the sand filter had been covered in layers of dirt and horsetails over the years. The septic guys brought in an excavator to remove it all. We now have a lower “terrace” (shout out to Lady Elaine for giving our lovely new mud pit a snazzy name). When this project is over, we’ll have you all over to our terrace. Who wouldn’t want to sip cocktails and snack on crudité whilst lounging atop a domestic wastewater filtration system?!
our new "terrace"
While one machine was digging up mountains of earth, another dropped off a load of rocks to fill the driveway that is also a mud pit thanks to our recent PNW atmospheric rivers. We brought in six more loads of dirt to build up the area where the house will go. I smiled as I looked around on this groundbreaking day – piles of dirt and piles of rock.
It reminds me of a movie quote we still use from one of the horrendous Redbox flicks we were subjected to during the deepest, darkest months of covid. With no WiFi on the boat, we were dependent on the library and Redbox. The library gave us entertaining motion picture classics. Redbox, on the other hand, gave us production studios’ bottom shelf humiliations. No, even worse, the very back of the bottom shelf. I’m talking the back of a bottom shelf in a remote Hollywood warehouse where they keep box office flops like Armageddon or anything with Nicolas Cage post-Raising Arizona. Directors and producers pray these movies never see the light of day, fearing someone they know will see their name flash across the screen during opening credits. Do you hear me?!? These movies were AWFUL. Anyway, one of the better films had a funny line when a monster rationalized why it wanted to bite people’s heads off and stack the bodies in the corner: “Pile of heads. Pile of bodies.” Like I said, this was one of the better ones.
piles of dirt
So, yea, we had piles of dirt and rock everywhere. It also rained all day, turning the yard into piles of puddles. But, we now officially have a working septic system and a portion of the driveway is no longer flooded. The rest of the yard may look like a total disaster, but it’s OUR groundbreaking disaster. I’ll take that any day.
Lyndsay! Why have I not seen this excellent website before?? I read with great interest all of your very entertaining posts and am thrilled to know you are such an excellent wordsmith.
Hearty congratulations on the groundbreaking!!! I will eagerly follow along on your adventures. Love to you both💕 LOVE you manning…ha ha…the controls with absolute JOY!!