In Nov. 2021, just as winter was about to set in, we learned that our old (1962) septic tank was failing. We rushed to replace it, starting the process with a "perc" test of the soil that had to be done before the ground froze and hiring an engineer to design a new system that would meet the exacting standards required today. For those of you whose houses are hooked up to a town or city sewer line, the urgent need we had to replace our own disposal system for sewage and waste water may not be immediately obvious. But a total failure of our private system would mean that sewage would back up into the house. Ugh! So early this year we went through the fairly complicated process of getting the town Board of Health to okay our plans. Then we were fortunate to find a local (Leverett, MA) company to do the installation: L&F Construction. In July they showed up with a huge backhoe, lots of pipe for the leach field, and many truckloads of sand, gravel, and topsoil. A separate company delivered a 2000-gallon concrete septic tank. Lots of truck and excavator noise for five days! But the end result, a level grass surface 60 by 60 feet square, looks great.