Please help this city dweller: what do well water and on site septic mean?
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Anonymous
We also have a garbage disposal. Modern code allows for garbage disposals on septic. You can’t flush tampons into a septic system, but I don’t think people do that anymore on city sewer, either. |
Anonymous
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OP here. Wow, thank you for the great advice! You've been very helpful 
Yes, there are woods on about a third of the property, and on satellite view and photos/videos, this and neighboring properties look well-maintained. I dug into the Master Plan for that area and apparently the residents and powers that be wish to keep their area rural and not too developed. It's designated a conservation area type IV, which is the least developed (even though it's not that far from DC). I agree with PPs about keeping a portion of the property wild. Adding a question: I've heard of people keeping a few goats or sheep, as pets, but also to keep their lawns "self-mowed" and free of encroaching jungle. There is a stable and field on the property already. What do you guys think? Is this crazy? Maybe I could just rent them when I need to. I know a couple of people who do that. |
Anonymous
| You don’t need a tractor or goats. Just get a good zero turn. If you keep the property mowed there will be no encroachment. |
Anonymous
| It means "don't do it!" |
Anonymous
Is the field separate from the main house? How big of an area is it? Is it attached to a neighbor’s property/part of a larger field? |
Anonymous
I live on two acres in an area of 2-3+ acre lots. When we moved in, one of our neighbors had a small fenced-in area with a shelter and like 4 sheep. The sheep lived in that area but free-roamed their lot plus the next-door neighbor's (I'm assuming the two of them worked that out), I would see them occasionally when walking my dog--their lot had a wooded border that didn't encourage the sheep to roam further. They would stare for a minute and then run away even though we were never actually close to them, they definitely stuck close to home but that isn't always the case. It was charming, because my neighborhood definitely feels more suburban than farm-y. But eventually they got rid of the sheep, they aren't around any more. The sheep would get SUPER shaggy and scrubby-looking, though--keep in mind that you're going to have to find someone who will shear them yearly, it makes it harder to go on vacations and whatnot because you have to find someone willing to come and tend them (no sheep boarding!) and they will require on-site visits from vets, etc. It's more complicated than you think to have even a small number of livestock. We have a well and septic. We're in LoCo and an annual inspection of our septic is required, pump-outs are about every 3-4 years (we're a family of four). Our well is very deep and I really like the water, but we had to add an iron mitigation system -- lots of iron staining in the toilet bowls and tanks when we moved in, we scrubbed the bowls with pumice stones and that has gotten better with the additional treatment. We also have a softener (otherwise we get an egg-y smell and the taste degrades) and DH regularly hauls 50-lb bags of salt to fill that system. OH, and the other thing is, depending on the age of the system and your tolerance for risk, actual septic-safe toilet paper is the thinnest single-ply out there (Scott brand, again, single-ply). I know not everyone does that, but we do on the recommendation of our plumber. Let me tell you, it takes some getting used to and I still miss Charmin, lol. If your well isn't deep enough or the aquifer starts having issues, though, you are SOL. That happened out in Round Hill this summer, where some of the houses' wells were going dry because we were in drought conditions for an extended period (but not even *that* long!). We currently pay about $90 a week to have our two acres mowed. If we lived on more, I would seriously consider doing what a pp suggested and re-wilding it to cut down on maintenance and provide more habitat. The other thing to think about on large and partly-wooded lots is that you will inevitably deal with things like mice, rats, voles, and sometimes larger animals like skunks or diggers like woodchucks (which cannot legally be relocated, I believe), falling or sick trees, etc. We have a pest company regularly spray the house perimeter and we have traps strategically placed so we catch mice before they get into food (it took a bit of figuring out where best placement was--if we catch them in the basement, they never make it into the pantry). We check the traps regularly and catch probably 5 or so a year, mostly in the fall when it starts getting cold. Get good snap-traps, NOT glue traps. |
Anonymous
Typically it's yours and yours alone. We have a small farm as a getaway with septic. Be very thoughtful of what goes down the drain. The more stuff you send down that the bacteria can't digest, the more often you'll have to get it pumped out. We feed it bacteria (RidX) a couple times a year. Not sure it makes a difference. |
Anonymous
Gotta watch out for tree-strangling invasive vines. Oriental bittersweet is awful! |
Anonymous
| It means you don’t have water coming into your house via a city water line. If the well dries up, you’ll need to dig another. You’ll need to pump the septic tank sometimes. |
Anonymous
OP here. Eyeballing, maybe one fenced acre, past the landscaped back yard. Abuts to property line. |
Anonymous
| We had 6.25 acres before we moved here. We had about 3 acres of woods, 2 acres of grass around the house and then about an acre that we put in a wildflower prairie. Get a good zero turn to mow, it took maybe 1 1/2 hours to mow the whole yard. We also had a large tractor with a front loader that also had a snow thrower. We were in an area that got a good amount of snow though and the drifts could get 2-3 ft high in places. Def get a whole house generator, preferably one that automatically turns on when the power goes out and can handle at least the major items ( well, heat, outlets that any fridges/freezers are on). |
Anonymous
Mow a perimeter along the woods 6-7 times and you’ll be fine. Depending on topography/layout, you could get a sub compact tractor with a belly mower. If you have acreage, the functionality of a loader on a small tractor is really huge. But, if you have a lot of trees, tight turns, small spaces, you’ll need a zero turn. You’ve really graduated when you have a sbs, zero turn, and tractor. |
Anonymous
They might not now, but you can never assume what will happen in the future especially when people have plenty of space, no hoa, and rural zoning. |
Anonymous
Cul De Sac is good. This sounds like a good option me. You have your own space, no thru traffic, and some neighbors if you want to socialize with people. |
Anonymous
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