Last week we rented a small backhoe and began excavating the cistern and leveling the front yard. The plan was to dig the root cellar, level the workshop/shed site and dig out the straw bale duplex foundation at the same time, but we managed to break the rear wheel drive and were cut prematurely short after nearly finishing the cistern and leveling much of the front yard area of the common house and making a greywater mulch basin.
The cistern will hold about 3,500 gallons of purified rainwater and keep it from freezing. We’re going to seal it with a cement plaster lining and reinforce the frost zone with a rock/cement retaining wall and seal the top with a concrete lid poured in place.
We’ve spent the last few days digging the ledge to hold the retaining wall and squaring up the hole somewhat, although it doesn’t need to be perfect for our purposes. We’ve still got to dig the trenches for the overflow and outlet pipe runs, but in the meantime though it’s perfect for some good old fashioned pit fighting…