That Sinking Feeling

I mentioned back in May that we were having our house re-leveled - Leveling Blues.

When they did the job, they had to access 25 piers around the circumference of the house – piers that were installed 15 years ago when the house was leveled the first time.  To do that they dug a series of foxholes about 3 feet by 2 feet around and approximately 4 feet deep, just big enough for a small Mexican and a large hydraulic jack.  They carefully stacked all the dirt on tarps or plywood, and when the job was finished, they put all the dirt back in the holes. Although they used a tool to carefully tamp the dirt, each hole ended up with a slight mound.

Now, after a month and a half and several rainy days, most of the holes look like this:

 

The dirt that was previously mounded about two or three inches above the surrounding area has now dropped to a couple inches below grade level.  All of the dirt that was removed went back in the holes, but somehow it wasn’t enough.  I’m guessing that I need eight to ten wheelbarrow loads of dirt to bring things back to level.

I’ve heard all my life that when digging graves or post holes the phase of the moon determines whether, when you refill the hole, you will have too much dirt or not enough.  While there is lots of anecdotal evidence that equates holes dug on the full moon with too much dirt and new moon holes with not enough, on-line experts seem to agree that this is just a myth. Still, they don’t offer any real explanation of the phenomenon except maybe Murphy’s Law.

For what it’s worth, the day they filled the holes back in the moon was almost invisible.  It was nearing the end of  its waning crescent phase.