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Sun Jan 27, 2008 6:46 pm

Today while fixing up the back yard so my kids can run around untethered , install small fence, clean up an old compost bin,
I found under the compost bin a hole, a hole into an abandoned sess pit.
Its weird how things like that, when you have kids, can really freak you out.
At first I thought I found the mother load of rat nests then I thought it was something bigger like I dont know what. We dont have anything I know of that burrow es that big in Hawaii, it was big enough for me to fall through. Then after throwing a couple of big rocks down there and not hearing anything hit, I really got got freaked out.
Then I thought lava tube?, I have heard about those.
Anyway, it only turned out to be a 30 ft deep hole in the back yard that easily could have swallowed up my kid, so it has another concrete cover over it and its all good for now but, but like I said Its strange how it affected me, with the concern for my kids and all.

Sun Jan 27, 2008 6:56 pm

I don't even have kids and I think I would freak the fuck out if I found an Abyss in my yard!

Sun Jan 27, 2008 6:58 pm

I used a mirror to shine daylight down there just to make sure it had a bottom :shock:

Sun Jan 27, 2008 6:59 pm

Have you read that book House of Leaves? I recommend you do now. Whatever you do, don't go exploring it.

Sun Jan 27, 2008 6:59 pm

Well that would have scared the heck out of me. In a related story I drove a crane truck into cistern, swallowed the whole rear axle.

Sun Jan 27, 2008 7:00 pm

GostaBerling wrote: Well that would have scared the heck out of me. In a related story I drove a crane truck into cistern, swallowed the whole rear axle.

Wow. I like this a whole lot more than the rants. Instead of insults it's sharing all your funny ass stories. I mean, it's funny if it's not happening to you. Right?

Sun Jan 27, 2008 7:01 pm

Ian wrote: Have you read that book House of Leaves? I recommend you do now. Whatever you do, don't go exploring it.

The hole or the book? :wink:

Sun Jan 27, 2008 7:07 pm

I bet if you were to climb down it, you would end up in China

Sun Jan 27, 2008 7:20 pm

A freind of mine in Sacramento was digging in his yard after he had just bought his house. The house was very old, had been condemmed, and he had to upgrade the sewr pipes. Anyway, as he was digging into the yard, he hit something hard... Upon further digging, he discovered decomposing concrete which he mistakenly assumed was a buried slab. A few more whacks with a shovel, and he found himself fifteen feet down inside of an ancient septic tank. This was the days before everyone had cell phones... Anyway, had was down there for several hours till his wife came home from work and eventually found him.

Sun Jan 27, 2008 7:24 pm

i have an old cistern in my yard...we have been throwing rocks and dirt down it for 20 years.when i first moved into my house it was 50 ft deep.the first 15 feet are brick and then stone towards the bottom....so someone was down there and laid the brick/stone...every couple of years we move the big metal plate over it and throw some more stuff down it.it was great when we tore off some old plaster didnt have to rent a dumpster.....................................phil

Sun Jan 27, 2008 7:26 pm

mynameismud wrote: I bet if you were to climb down it, you would end up in China

beat me to it.

Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:05 pm

Skim wrote: mynameismud wrote: I bet if you were to climb down it, you would end up in China

beat me to it.

Are you guys saying that china is a cess pit?

Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:25 pm

do we need to spell that out? :lol:

but i was thinking, as soon as your kids discover it's there? no way keeping them out. that'd be waaaay fun to explore to a kid! indiana jones and the pit of stink!

it's like putting red button on the dashboard. do that and see how long it takes before they HAVE to press it. it's not an option! :P

Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:48 pm

My Uncle lived in a mining town up in northwestern Ontario---he told us holes used to show up all over the place from old mine shaft cave ins. One of his neighbor's kids fell through one when he jumped off his swing :shock:

I found this yesterday--talk about a hole!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHol4ICeDoo&NR=1

Sun Jan 27, 2008 9:13 pm

When I worked for the National Park Service in Yellowstone Park, we were digging a new leach line for the Mammoth Campground. All was well, I was the grunt Laborer, and a guy named Ray Walker was running the backhoe, and he was a damned good operator. He made a pass, and swung the bucket up and out, and curled the bucket to dump the load....
NOTHING.
He tried it again-
NOTHING.
We both gingerly walked over to the hole and looked in...
NOTHING.
We dropped some good sized rocks down the hole, to see if we could hear them either hit the sides or the bottom-
NOTHING.
We VERY carefully got the backhoe outta there, and later on, the fence crew strung some chain link around it...

Sun Jan 27, 2008 9:56 pm

mynameismud wrote: I bet if you were to climb down it, you would end up in China

Secret importing route for EMPI products?

Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:12 pm

Last spring I was fixing some of the sprinklers in my pasture when I noticed a different looking spot. I walked over to it and found a 24 inch wide hold, lined with concrete. Apparently it was an old well that was filled in with dirt, but the base of the dirt has washed out through the water table and it is slowly clearing out. It is about 12 feet deep now, who knows how deep it will become. I've thought of trying to dig it out to have a secondary well that I could use without having to have an electric pump, but it's a lot of work. For right now, I've just put a fence around it.

Sun Jan 27, 2008 11:39 pm

my uncle used to have a dairy here in california and he had a few fields that he grew alfalfa on and one day a worker was taking a skid loader over to that field and decided to take a short cut through the old potato patch. well it turns out that the potatoes had turned the field into quick sand, not like the swamp mud kind of quick sand but the break into and underground crevice and barely escape while sand rushed in all around filling up the hole. took all day to get the damned thing out, guess what?
their building houses on that land now and calling it "the cove"

Mon Jan 28, 2008 12:17 am

runslikeapenguin wrote:
their building houses on that land now and calling it "the cove"

I would like to see those foundations in a couple of years :oops:

Mon Jan 28, 2008 6:54 am

Spezialist wrote: Skim wrote: mynameismud wrote: I bet if you were to climb down it, you would end up in China

beat me to it.

Are you guys saying that china is a cess pit?

Don't know about China, but the Gilroy area (where Spezialist lives?) is full of a lot of old redwood septic tanks/cess pits that have been left to rot out over the years. Most are never "found" like yours. But occasionally something big happens. I helped pull a horse out of one of these things a few years back. Very stinky....a very forgettable day. The horse survived with some skin problems that cleared with some antibiotics. But we smelled pretty bad after hoisting that poor beast out of there. My wife dumped my clothes in the garbage. Not enough Tide in the world to clean that stench.