This morning started out pretty normal. All our usual activities. Including the use of water. Which means, of course, the pumps in the basement go off.

Well, this morning, I heard the septic pump go off, but after a while I realized it wasn’t turning off.

I waited a bit longer, and it still wasn’t turning off.

Finally, I went into the basement. Everything looked normal enough, but it was just running and not stopping.

I finally turned it off manually, so I could check the filter my brother had installed in a section of pipe running from the tank to the pump.

The filter is a sort of basket with a handle on it. When I opened the top and lifted it out, it was completely black and so clogged, it was holding liquid, and not draining!

I popped in the other basket (we switch out between two of them) and set the clogged on in a container we have in the old laundry sink to soak in detergent. Once the filter casing was refilled with water and sealed, I turned the switch back on. The pump turned on immediately, and I left it for a while.

It still wouldn’t shut off on its own.

I finally went back down and turned it off manually again.

I made sure to listen to the pipes, and I wasn’t hearing much splashing, so it does sound like the greywater side of the tank had been emptied.

While doing my morning rounds, I went to check the outflow area. It’s not an area we check often in the winter, because it’s so hard to get to. Much to my surprise, for most of the distance to the area, I was actually able to walk on top of the snow and it held my weight! All that freezing and thawing has resulted in a very hard surface.

This is the outflow. One of our jobs for when things thawed out was to clear in front of it. At some point, someone laid down what looks like a piece of metal roofing, bent into a slight curve, to direct the flow towards the pond. It is full of debris. Now, instead of flowing to the pond, it goes off to the side and towards the inner yard, and where the old collapsed log building is.

The area in front was wet, but I honestly couldn’t tell if there had been a recent outflow of grey water from the tank.

I’m hoping the problem is something as simple as the float being stuck.

Oh! The phone just rang. I called the septic guy and left a message, and he just called back.

He’ll be coming over to empty the tank this morning, and is okay with my paying him tomorrow, when we’ll have cash.

Time to go take the insulated tarp off the tank, and unlock the gate!

Fingers crossed that it’s just the float, and this will take care of it!

The Re-Farmer