A Little Project

A few weeks ago Ben decided it might be a good idea to try and avoid the (unavoidable) higher fuel prices this spring by buying a big fuel tank and making tanker-load purchases before the price went up. Even if prices go up, buying by the tanker can save up to 20 cents/gallon on diesel, so fuel for spring work and any spring chopping we do might be bought at a little savings, anyway. He found a used one down by Winlock and Lou and I drove down there and paid for it last month. Before it gets here, we wanted to do site preparations so it won't have to be moved several times -- it is an 11,000 gallon tank and the fewer the moves, the better!

The government powers that be strongly suggest a containment facility around fuel tanks to avoid environmental disasters, contamination of water sources, etc. We have never put our tanks into a containment since our tanks have been fairly smallish ones (500-1000 gallons) and nearby to where we live and work, so any leak or spill would be noticed immediately. But with this big tank, Ben thought he'd make a good-faith effort to put it into a containment area and began to clear out the area west of the old shop. "While we are at it" (fatal words if ever there were any), he decided it might be time to dig up that one fuel tank we always knew was buried back there. Since we've never used it and were told it was empty when we bought the place, we've simply ignored its existence. But it was probably time. Ben and Kit started digging it out by hand ... then borrowed the neighbor's backhoe when they realized exactly how big this tank might be. After about 3 days, a backhoe, the Manitou, and 3 guys trying to keep the loose sand from falling back into the hole, they finally got it out. I think Ben estimated it at +5000 gallons, and it is in good enough shape that they plan to clean it up and add it to the tank farm. Benefits to living in a dry climate; it still had some paint on it in places. Now we can get TWO tankers delivered at once if we want to...

When it came time to fill the hole back in, Ben rented a tamper (whatever they are called) so that the dirt wouldn't settle back down later and mess up his flat confinement area. They added the dirt a little at a time and compacted it down. Kit's lab puppy, Paul, looked on from the safety of the truck cab, not that he wanted to be stuck way up there from the sounds of his barking.