RickCorey -lots of info, I will rea it over an over an soak it in.
Woofie, generally eformities or still births in animals is relate to a genetic mismatch... Sometimes if the female is bre to a ifferent male-problem fixe. Of course it coul also be only the female herself. Inbreeing of animals also oes that sometimes an I woul think with most farm animals it is har to always know who the Pops is!
I did not notice any area of the yard any greener than another over the last summer. We did get fairly ample rain though.
We bought the house the last day of May 2013. The house was built in 43 and has been added on and is a hodge podge house. A real fixer upper that a lot of do it yourselfers had no idea what they were doing, that or they were just too poor to do better and it was also a rental for 16 yrs at least. So we fell in love with the place because of the location and the 1.4 acre yard. We could tell the sewer had problems. The seller paid to have it located, (they didn't even know where the tank was) and also had it pumped out and the concrete tank was cracked, so that was repaired. There was also a clean-out and a riser added. At that point we bought the house, the inspector said he didn't see any other problems with the system. But the leach lines were never located, just an approximate area where one would assume they probably are.
I didn't think you could put weed barrier or plastic down over the leach field because wouldn't it keep the moisture from drying out properly from the leach lines?
Chelle, we got rid of all the wood asap. We have been pulling out all the old wood timbers and stumps and leaves ect. The yard has went for years with hardly any maintenance and the house has termites. The stumps in the yard have termites. If we lay out a piece of wood for a few days, there will be termites in it. The neighbor has termites too and has been treating them for several years. There were termites in some railroad ties even. We are just trying to keep it clean and disturbed regular and keep treating the house. I hope we eventually get rid of them. This are of the yard is far enough from the house I hope using some fresh treated timbers or railroad ties will be safe. I don't like the idea of using any chemical treated wood for vegetable/food beds, but I figure the amount leached into the soil and taken in by the plants will still be minimal compared to all the chemical sprays used by big producers. In other words the vegetables will still be safer than store bought. With the termite problems, I don't feel comfortable using any wood products that aren't treated.
I like the idea of doing sort of a berm style. I could simply add some raised dirt and then I wouldn't even have to use any edging at all for now. I just didn't know if it was a good idea to add soil OVER the leach field.
