Our First French Drain

Before we moved into the homestead my father in law informed us that the house had a drain that went out into the back field. He said that the washing machine, bathroom sink and tub(oddly not the kitchen sink) all went out there and not into the septic. We've walked the grounds before and inspected the area, looked hidden and no standing water issues that we saw. My husband, Chris, and I thought nothing of it. We SHOULD have thought more on it, I'll explain.


The first week we moved in we took care of regular moving in things and went about our daily lives consuming the normal amount of water as if we still lived in the suburbs on city sewage. Only after a few days we went out into the field and noticed a disgusting pool of water. This was after my husband  ran over the drain with a bobcat and we had the fiasco with the septic. Chris made the hole bigger to help dry it out but it really wasn't drying out. I was nervous to use too much water, I showered in less than 2 minutes on an every other day schedule. Laundry was piling up and I had to rethink how I sorted clothes for washing. Less loads and quick wash cycles helped but the pool was still there.


We have a huge mosquito problem here in San Antonio and this was just a bad breeding ground for them. We discussed that perhaps we need to trench the area and allow it to flow into less saturated areas of the field. I woke up one morning and went to work digging. The mud was sludge like and difficult to remove, I dug a straight line down from the pool and left it at that. The water was moving and I checked on it through out the day between chores. Chris came home and said it looked better but we probably should make some laterals and have it go out more. My sides ached at the thought but I agreed. The first dig:

Next day, there was more water but that's because we had showered and I did one load of laundry. I went out again with the shovel this time I went to the right in the direction of the down slop of our field. The water was finally draining and the pipe was clear of water but I had dug down hill that eventually started sloping up. there was some standing water from god knows where, probably from a rain shower. I stopped there and gave the draining pool time to seep into the soil. It wasn't really draining as fast as I hoped. I gave myself a break for a couple of days and took water usage slow and serious.


My daughter, Hanna, had time off from work and came out to help me dig. We went left of the initial trench which was a gradual up hill, we dug deeper than the right lateral to make up for the slope. The trench ended to be about six feet long and little over a foot down. Thankfully our soil isn't too hard. Took us three hours, after we got it the length we wanted we then chipped away at the dirt holding the water back from filling the new area and everything flowed great. The husband and I gave it a day and deliberated on whether or not we needed to go further but he didn't think we needed to. The water was seeping into the surrounding field and the whole french drain project was slowly drying up.


Last weekend we decided to edge it out a bit more we also decided we needed some plants to help with water control. We got two Meyer lemons, two Alma fig trees, one loquat and some grasses that are suppose to do well in water/ mud. Husband took his dad's truck and got gravel while Hanna and I went to get stuff to make cake since it was granddad's birthday. I made lunch as Chris, Hanna and Grandma filled in the trench with gravel and then we all pitched in and dug holes for the trees. We have more to plant but everyone was hot and sweaty so we stopped at the trees and grasses. The area looks so amazing now, I can only imagine what it will be like in a couple of years. It looks like a little oasis out in the middle of the field.

Here is what I take out of all this; the house basically only had one person living in it for ten years and he was gone most of the time because of work or out hunting so the systems that are in place never had to deal with the loads that a stay at home mom/wife would put on it. Especially one that was too use to just running water at all times for everything. These three weeks that we have been living here really have opened my eyes to how I use cleaning products, how much water we go through and disposal of kitchen waste. I still have my faults and it's definitely an adjustment that will take time but it's not hard. YES, the trenching was the suck but that's part of homesteading. Getting out and doing it. Hopefully we don't have any more issues with the french drain but if we do I will keep you posted. Pic of the homemade chocolate cake:

The recipe was a little odd, grandpa loved it though, so that's all that counts :)