Just A Diggin

Posted in Eternal Love | 2 comments

Once we arrived in Van Vleck, Texas, there was work to be done.  Our trailer house would not get delivered for a few weeks, but that gave us time to get everything set up for its arrival.

Frank and his Dad were working shift work and digging the septic lines in the evenings. Frank’s Mom was working as an accountant, and Frank’s little sister, Cindy, was attending a Daycare preschool in Bay City, Texas, where her Mom worked.  Scotty and I were holding down the fort, cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, and being there on the lookout for when Jackson Electric and the Well Company arrived.

First up was the Well Company.  They came in a big ole drilling truck, drilled down about 195 feet, struck water, and then they set up the water pump and tank.  Of course, without electricity, the well could not operate.

Next up, Jackson Electric came for a visit. They had to put up three electric poles to carry the electrical lines to a breaker box on a pole by the water well. A few days before the electric company arrived, Frank and his Dad put a pole by the water tank with a breaker box on it. The electric company ran the electrical lines to the pole then the breaker box.  Frank and his Dad had decided to dig a ditch from the breaker box pole then run the electric wires from the breaker box underground in piping to the trailer house breaker box, as soon as it arrived.

All was going great, but the septic line digging was going slowly. The ground had a lot of clay in it, which made for some hard digging. Plus, the line had to slope downward gradually, which meant the dirt-digging went deeper and deeper. Because of funds being low, Frank and his Dad worked with shovels only and then only after work until dark with Frank’s Mom and I supplying them cold sweet ice tea.  Since they were both working shift work, some days, they could not do any digging at all.  Their weekdays off and the weekends were the best times to get more of the ditch dug.

I tried to get Frank to let me dig on the ditch during the day while everyone was at work, but he told me that it was guy thangy, and he was not having his wife digging in a ditch.  Of course, this statement just made me roll my eyes at him, which brings us to the next story.

Diggin’

A week of guy thangy diggings went by, so after Frank, his Dad, his Mom, and Cindy left for work and daycare, I decided to take Scotty, snacks, a shovel, and a large container of water to the septic ditch.  Since they would all be gone all day, this was a convenient time for me to do some gal digging!  Scotty had brought some cars with him, and he was more than happy to play with them in the dirt pile beside the ditch.

After digging for hours, I took Scotty back to Frank’s folk’s house for lunch, and when we finished eating, I refilled the large water container, then Scotty and I headed back to the septic ditch.  I jumped back down into the ditch and resumed my gal digging. The afternoon sun pounded down on me, time was slipping by, and it felt as if I was sweating bricks with dirt all over me, but determination kept me shoveling that clay.

Suddenly, I heard a voice above me, “So, do I need to pull you out of that ditch and give you a spanking, Nancy Lou, or change your name to Sewer Momma?

Quickly without a second thought, the shovel full of dirt that I had just dug and loaded onto the shovel got hurled at that Dimple Faced guy standing above me, who returned the favor by drenching me with the water in the large container by the ditch.  Frank and I started laughing, then he helped me to climb out of that ditch, but then the chase was on. After all, dirty, sweaty, Sewer Mom needed to hug Dimples. 

Later Frank told me that he was proud of me, he did not want me to hurt myself, but he realized there was no way to stop me from helping.  Finally, after lots of days of digging, we got the septic lines, and a hole for the septic tank dug.  The next step was to put gravel in the ditch, then sewer pipe, more gravel, and then bury to lines with the dirt dug out of the ditch.  Frank and his Dad put the septic tank into the hole dug for it, then it started to rain, and it rain and it rained, so we all ran back to the house.  It continually rained for two more days, and then the sun came out.  Frank, his Dad, and I headed back out to the sewer ditch, but we did not have to walk very far to see that the septic tank was floating. The rain had popped that dude out of the ground. Now the septic tank was a boat floating on a hole full of water.

Frank and his Dad did not think it was funny. On the other hand, I could not stop laughing.  They looked at me like I had gone nuts, then decided that I should help them drain the water out of the sewer hole, but I was not allowed to laugh, which made the situation even more hilarious. Well, not laughing for me lasted for about five seconds after they set the water pump up to drain the hole, but abruptly ended when the water pump started pumping that dirty, filthy, muddy water out through the hose, which Frank was holding with me by his side. Frank’s Dad uncontrollably laughed when Frank decided that it would be funny to spray me with that hose squirting dirty, muddy, filthy water. I laughed, too, but my mind was busy thinking of ways to get back at them when they least expected it.  Of course, they knew I would.

Finally, we finished getting things ready to move our new trailer house on the sand pad that Frank’s brother Lloyd had provided, but as nature would have it, it began to rain for days on end.  The trailer had to be pulled into Frank’s folk’s drive then across their grass farm field to position it correctly, but the grass field was wet.  Because of the weight, the trailer could not be moved across the grass field if it was wet.  Frank and I tried to be patient, but it had been a long Summer, and we were ready to move and settle into our new home.  After many nights of prayers, the rain stopped. Then within a few days, the trailer house was moved onto the pad.  The trailer was leveled with jacks then tied down with straps.

Frank’s Dad hooked up the electricity to the breaker box while Frank and I put up the vinyl siding skirt that we bought to close in the bottom around the trailer.  Next, Frank and his Dad hooked up the sewer line and the waterline.  Everything worked just the way we planned.  Well, there was that little fuse blowing incident, but we fixed that.  They really should mark breakers better, 220 and 110 are not the same.

Things were definitely looking up for us, and we were extremely excited.

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2 Comments

  1. Lol…..no blisters? Or, did you rely on swimming pool experience? That floating septic tank must have brought back memories of cleaning out that pool!
    It must have been nice to get back in the vicinity of family

    • Kim, yes there were blisters. Lol. It was good to be near family again. Lord knows we would never have gotten that trailer set up without Frank’s Dad and Brother.
      The porches will be even more fun. So many funny things that Summer.
      Thank you for your comment, Kim and your Beautiful support.
      God Bless You,
      Nancy

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