Month: May 2024

Wind damage, and Our 2024 Garden: growth

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The outside cats are most confused!

There are no food bowls in the sun room right now. I checked the critter cam a few times during the night, and would sometimes see a cat wandering around where their platform and cat beds used to be, seeming lost! This morning, there was a whole crowd of them, milling about, waiting for their breakfast. They were all over the baby jail, inside and out, but there are no beds or blankets inside it right now, either.

As I fed them, I counted only 17, though.

With yesterday’s high winds, while checking around the yard, I was surprised to find just a couple of fallen branches, and just one broken tree.

The trunk of a poplar snapped off and will need to be cleared out. There’s also a live spruce tree nearby that has been slowly falling over, but it’s been doing that for years now. I’ve been keeping an eye on it. The only reason it’s not on the ground already it because it’s leaning against another tree. The dead trees around it, however, are all still standing straight!

It looks like we won’t be getting any haskaps again this year. The one “Mr.” haskap is leafing wonderfully, and even showing flower buds. The “Mrs.” haskap that was purchased and planted the same year is barely showing leaf buds. The smaller “Mrs.” haskap that was planted the following year is actually further ahead, but is really small compared to the other two. There’s just 1 year’s difference between them, so it should be much closer in size.

We’ll see how they do this year. I keep saying we need to transplant them to a better location, but every time I talk about it with the girls, they are concerned that moving them would damage them too much. Considering how poorly they are doing now, I don’t see what difference that makes. For the length of time we’ve had them, we should be getting plenty of berries every year by now, but there’s just no possibility of proper cross pollination to happen.

Of course, I checked the bed with the peas, carrots and spinach planted. I think I might, maybe, possibly be seeing a carrot sprout or two, and there are no peas coming up yet, but we’re finally seeing spinach!

The garlic, meanwhile, is seeing an absolute growth spurt, in all the beds they are planted in!

Syndol was following me around this morning, and he is frustrating me to no end! He kept going into the garden beds as I was checking them. I’ll have to put something around the bed with the spinach to keep him out! We can’t put a cover back on it, because of the T posts set up inside, which will have netting set up for the peas to climb, later on. The tiny raised bed that has its own cover is closed at the ends, so cats can’t get inside. Instead, Syndol climbs on top and uses it like a hammock! He’s the only cat I’ve seen that does that, but I’m sure there are others. I have to put another support hoop in the middle, plus a cross piece at the top, because there’s no way we’ll be able to keep the cats from climbing it.

But not today.

Today, the focus is back on the sun room. First, the windows in the plant corner need to be cleaned, then the second light hung back up over where the makeshift table will be set up. After that, we can set up the plant table over the baby jail, and bring the cat beds and blankets back.

Washing those was quite the thing! We split them all into two loads, and both loads had to be washed twice. Actually, I think my daughter washed the second load a third time, during the night. The amount of debris that had to be cleaned out of the washing machine’s tub was rather shocking, too. Some of the bedding needed a lot of mashing and bashing, as the layers inside got all messed up and bunched up. There’s one large cat bed that was donated to use that I’ve just not been able to get flat and even again. I’m serious considering opening up a seam so I can reach inside and break up the filling. The cats hardly even use it, because gets so lumpy after being washed.

So that’s my main goal today. Getting the plant side of the sun room done. Then the tools and storage side can be worked on.

That side, I’m afraid, it probably going to have a lot more messes hidden among the stuff they’ve knocked about. Now that everything’s thawed out, there’s an unfortunate smell, and it has to be coming from somewhere on that side.

At least it’s got a concrete floor that makes it much easier to clean!

The Re-Farmer

… or not?

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Okay, so last night, we had issues with the septic pump again. It wasn’t turning off, even though there was no water flowing through the pump. So I shut it off manually and left it for later.

This morning, while doing my rounds, I popped opened the tank and took a look. The grey water side was pretty full, and I could see the new float/pill switch at the top. Nothing seemed to be hung up or anything.

I’d primed the filter last night, so all I had to do was turn the pump back on and see. The filter promptly empties – but no grey water from the tank was being pulled in.

Crud.

Also, I really, really appreciate having that filter with its clear lid on there. Without it, we’d have no way of seeing what was going on!

So I shut it off, primed the filter again, and thought… what the heck. That tank is pretty full. I’ll try again.

At first, the filter just emptied, and I was going to shut if off again, but then grey water started to flow through the top. Perfect! I set the time on my phone for 4 minutes, and let it go. With the rain we’ve had lately, the old basement is starting to have water seeping through again, and the sump pump is starting to actually get trigged, so I moved some fans around. I’d already replaced the winter window in the old basement with the screen summer window, yesterday, for increased air flow.

Then, after about 3 minutes, the septic pump shut itself off.

???

It’s working properly again!

I have no idea what happened last night to keep it from shutting off, but whatever it was seems to have worked itself out.

At least for now.

There’s a reason I’m so paranoid about the pumps in this place!

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Here we go again!

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It’s 2am as I write this.

I tried going to bed early, so I could get an early start on work outside, before things got hot again.  Of course, everything seemed to conspire to keep me awake.

Which, I suppose, turned out to be a good thing.

It eventually soaking into my sleep deprived, frustrated brain, that I was hearing the septic pump running.

And it wasn’t turning off.

I almost dozed off, but was awakened again, and it was still running.

So down to the basement it went to check.  The filter had no liquid in it.  It was running dry. 

I did the usual routine; shut off the pump manually, prime the filter, turn it on again… then off again, when the filter just emptied, but the pump kept running.

*sigh*

Why would a new pill switch conk out so quickly?

Tomorrow… er… later today… I  will call the septic guy again, and let him know.

Until then, I hope to get at least a few hours of sleep!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: it’s a start

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Taking a break from manual labour yesterday seems to have done the trick. My right arm is feeling find again. So fine, in fact, it makes me suspicious! 😄

Today, I was thinking to use the amended soil pulled from the bed the potatoes are now in and starting on the chimney block planters along the other section of fence. Once I got outside, however, I remembered that getting the sun room cleaned out and set up for the transplants is a higher priority.

The outside cats are not happy with me!

When we set it up for them for the winter, one side of the room was set up for them, the other side was set up to store our gardening supplies and tools. I did put a sheet of rigid insulation on the top of the counter shelf – the top is metal and would get quite cold on their little toe beans – and left them space to sit on the shelf between the two windows on the storage side.

They, of course, trashed everything. They even managed to knock the sheet of insulation off the counter and get it stuck between the counter and the broken and now single pane window it’s covering. Boxes of screws scattered all over the floor, plant pots and garden supplies knocked out of the shelf opposite the window… just a disaster.

Getting the room cleaned out is something that needs to be done in sections, as we can’t empty everything outside. The only thing that physically can’t be removed is the baby jail that used to be in my room, when we had Decimus and her kittens. We might be able to squeeze it through – I honestly can’t remember if we had to partly dismantle it to get it from my room to the sun room, which would take it through three sets of doors.

Mostly, though, it’s because of the weather. The wind is insane right now, and we’re expecting rain. There is a large system blowing towards us and, from the weather radar, it does look like we’ll actually get some heavier rain, though the worst of it looks like it will miss us.

The first thing to do was get the floor mats out, hose them down and scrub them as best we could. They’re not hanging on the chain link fence. I think they’re heavy enough to not blow away!

Then some of the cat bedding on the floor got moved out before I could detach the heat lamp and remove the platform we made for them. The platform was basically a way to store the screen door we made to fit the old basement doorway, which allows us to have cool air circulating from the basement during the summer, while keeping the cats out. That had a sheet of insulation attached under it, then we had another small piece on top, along with a couple of cat beds, so they weren’t trying to walk on the half inch hardware cloth.

Both the frame and the sheet of insulation got a hose down and a scrubbing!

More cat bedding was removed from out of baby jail. All the food bowls were taken out, as well as the heated water bowl. The extension cord to the cat house was also pulled in and wrapped on its hooked on the wall for storage, as we no longer need to heat the cat house or the other heated water bowl outside.

Bins that were knocked out of the shelf at the window had to be cleared our. Plant clips, tent pegs, trays… all sorts of things they pushed off the shelf, so they could sit at the window, had to be picked up. I’d dragged the folding table we made a while back, over, and a number of things are now stored under it to be protected from any rain.

After finally being able to clear the shelf away from the window, I could move the baby jail, and take the interlocking mats out from under it. Those also got a hose down and a scrubbing on the lawn, just in time for some rain to rinse them off. 😄

Of course, there were cat messes to clean up, but it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it has been in previous years!

Still, the concrete floor did need some mopping up in a corner. We’re now at a point where we have to let that dry before we can continue.

For now, I’ve put the shelf back at the window, but we’ll need to pull it out again to clean the glass before we finish setting things up. I’ll also take the second shop light that’s in the living room right now and hang it back next to the one that’s in the sun room.

I moved the two trays of plants off the window shelf. The poor tomatoes. It looks like the cats have been walking all over them, to get to the open spot I left for them to sit in, instead of walking in the space next to the trays! We’ve lost a few, for sure, and they’re not doing anywhere near as well as the ones still inside. We had to move them out of the living room, but the overnight temperatures in the sun room were probably still to chilly for them, I think. The gourds, peppers and eggplant seem to be fine, though!

Since the interlocking floor mats are still outside and likely to get rained on again before they can finally dry and be brought in, this is likely as far as we can get for today. Last year, we rigged a table on the sawhorses using an old folding closet door we found in a shed somewhere, and we’ll be using that again this year. The saw horses are tall enough that it’ll clear the baby jail, so we’ll be able to leave that under it. Last year, we did allow the cats into the sun room while the plants were there, and they left them alone.

All the cat beds and blankets are currently being washed right now. When the time comes, we’ll set some up inside the baby jail for them. Who knows. We might even have a mama decide to have her kittens in there! Unlikely, but you never know!

After I took this photo, I gave the cats a light feeding, with no food or water bowls in the sun room at all right now. We also brought the mulberry saplings out of the living room and into the sun room. They really need to be in bigger pots, but they also need to be transplanted soon. We need to start hardening them off, and they could probably go into the ground, now. They are supposed to be a zone 3 tolerant variety.

It will be good to get the transplants out of the living room and into the sun room! We’re not starting anywhere near as many seeds indoors as we did last year – we were expecting to have a lot more growing space ready for them! – but it’s still pushing the limit as to what we can fit in the cat free zone inside. Unlike the cats outside, some of the inside cats would quite happily destroy all the seed trays, just for fun!

We definitely made good progress in setting things up on this side.

The other half of the room, however, is not going to be this easy, that’s for sure!

Ah, well. That’s what we get for being such sucks for the cats!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024… er… 2023 garden: We have survivors!

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I just finished doing my evening rounds – it is so gorgeous out there right now! – which gave me a chance to see how far my daughter got on the garden bed she was weeding.

Before I left this morning, she asked me which beds needed to be worked on, and if there were any surprised to watch out for, like fall plantings of some kind. I said no, we did the fall garlic in the old kitchen garden beds this year, and those were the only fall plantings we had.

The bed she started on is where we planted the Roma VF and Red Wethersfield onions, last year. The tomatoes ended up not very healthy, and seemed to get blight near the end, but the onions… they just disappeared. The seedlings I transplanted around the perimeter seemed to be doing well at first, and then they were gone. Not dug up. Just died away. So I definitely had plans for amending this bed, and we were most definitely not going to be planting tomatoes in it, again.

Imagine my surprise – and probably hers! – when I looked today and saw this.

All along the perimeter, Red Wethersfield onions are growing! There are so many crab grass rhizomes in there, my daughter has basically been digging them up and transplanting them.

I am totally amazed. Onions I thought had died off, with no evidence of them to be seen when that bed was harvested and the diseased looking tomato plants pulled for burning, had been there, all along, and survived the winter!

We started more Red Wethersfield onion seeds this year, too. I was going to give them one more try before giving up on them, at least for a few years. Now, it looks like we’re going to have plenty!

The bed is only about a quarter finished; it took my daughter a lot longer then usual, since she was both weeding and transplanting all the onions she was finding. Even through the crab grass growing around the edges, I can see more little onion bulbs pushing their way through!

Onions are biannual. Which means that these onions, if left alone, will go to seed, which we should be able to save.

What an awesome surprise!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: potting melons

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We had pre-germinated seeds ready to put into pots, but I was almost out of seed starting mix, so it’s a good thing I ended up doing a shop today.

Of the four Zucca melon seeds in the container, two were starting to germinate. With the Cream of Saskatchewan Watermelon, four out of five seeds germinated – and two were getting almost overdue for planting!

At first, I thought four of five Sarah’s Choice seeds had germinated, but it turned out the one of the seedlings had gotten big enough that it dropped its shell completely! So we’re five out of five on those.

As for the Pixie melons, I could see a couple of seeds starting to open up, but they are not at all ready yet. They, and the two remaining Zucca melon seeds are set aside now, to give them more time.

I was originally going to use one of the large celled trays for these but, at the last moment, I decided to use individual 4″ cardboard pots. I don’t know how long it’ll last, but I used a marker to label the pots directly, before filling them with pre-moistened seed starting mix. With some of the Sarah’s Choice seeds, the roots had grown between the layers of paper towel and spread quite a bit, so I tore the paper round them rather than risk damaging the roots by pulling them through. I now have all of the pots in a tray over the heat mat, with water on the bottom for the pots to absorb, rather than absorbing water from the premoistened growing medium.

As for the Summer of Melons blend, all the pre-germinated seeds but one have fully emerged.

We now have quite a lot of squash and melon seedlings going! Hopefully, they’ll all survive transplanting, but we have enough that we can afford a few losses. What was that poem again? Four seeds, all in a row; one for the blackbird, one for the crow; one to die and one to grow! Something like that.

I’m glad I got at least one gardening job done today, without making my messed up right arm any worse. 😁

The Re-Farmer

Change of plans; This is what $240 looks like

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I tried to take it easy yesterday. I really did!

By the end of the day, my right arm was giving me grief. Painkillers didn’t seem to help any, and it made for a difficult night. There just wasn’t any position I could get into that wasn’t making a joint somewhere more painful – and it was just the joints. No muscle pain, which is more what I would have expected. And why just my right arm? The wrist is the worst.

So that changed my plans for today. I didn’t want to push it by doing more manual labour outside. Instead, courtesy of my older daughter, I decided to do that cat food shop that was planned for later in the week, and my younger daughter is currently working on cleaning up and weeding the low raised beds in the main garden area, in preparation for amending with the sulfur granules and peat. She’s taking it slow and easy; it’s 20C/67F out there, and she handles heat even worse than I do!

I still did my morning rounds, though, and was happy to see more snow crocuses blooming.

They are such adorable, tiny little flowers!

I tried to do a head count of the outside cats this morning, and I think I counted 27. I saw Broccoli, which was good. Sad Face was there, which I’m not sure is good. Last night, there was a huge fight in the sun room – there’s tufts of fur all over the floor now. It was between Sad Face and Creamsicle III No sign of Creamsicle this morning.

Unfortunately, I also identified another of the white and greys as female. There’s one that I hear mewing every time I come out to feed them, but I never quite see which cat is making the noise. Well, which one was confirmed, as she was standing there, looking at me, as she mewed – and she was looking decidedly round.

*sigh*

So… Broccoli, Brussel, Sprout, Caramel, Slick (aka: Octomom) and Adam are all cats that had kittens last year, and now we have 2 white and greys that are looking round, and I’m pretty sure one of the tuxedos might be female, though I’m guessing only because I saw cats I know are male, showing extreme interest, about a month ago. So that makes for 8 mamas, with Broccoli already having her litter, possibly 9 if I’m right about that tuxedo.

*sigh*

I’m just assuming Brussel is pregnant. Her fur is so long and fluffy, we can’t actually tell if she’s getting round or not.

After what happened last year, though, it’s entirely possible we won’t actually have that many litters of kittens, though. It was such a bad year for losses. I suppose, in the end, that’s a good thing, as our colony would be much bigger if there hadn’t been, but it was still heartbreaking to find all those little bodies.

At least I can say, the outside cats are earning their keep. We have zero rodent problems!

The inside cats, on the other hand…. 😄😄

So my trip today was specifically for cat supplies, along with a few other things. I went to the Canadian Tire, first. I needed another bag of seed starting mix, so I could pot the pre-germinated melons. I also got three bags of stove pellets for the litters, with an extra bag because I sometimes use it to mulch garden beds.

Then it was off to the Walmart.

Of course, I got a few other things, too, for a grand total of $240.73 after taxes.

The canned cat food is for the inside cats, and the dry food mostly for both inside and outside cats.

Then there was the stuff for us.

The only thing we really needed was the house brand version of Pepto. I remembered we were low on popcorn seasonings, but couldn’t remember which ones (I hardly ever have popcorn, myself), so I got three different flavours. Then I spotted the rice crackers my husband likes, at only 97¢ each, so I got 2 each of 2 different flavours. Then I spotted the house brand teas at 97¢ each, too, so I got an Earl Grey and two Vanilla Rooibos. I was taking my time going through the store, as I didn’t want to leave until I knew the post office would be open on my way home, and found some compostable bags for our compost buckets. They keep moving where those are! Finally, I saw a good price on canned ham and decided to get one for us to try and see if we like it. If we do, then we can start getting more for the pantry, as part of our stock up supplies.

Oh, and I grabbed some bananas, too. We still have fruit at home, but we all like bananas. 😊

So that was my cat food re-stock trip that I would have done later in the week.

Hopefully, my right arm will be feeling better soon. I was going to wear a wrist brace, but the only one we could find was for the left. Somewhere, we have two more, one right handed and one left handed, but do you think anyone can remember what happened to them? I did look at wrist braces while at Walmart, but my wrist isn’t hurting enough to pay that much for one, when we have one somewhere at home!

The weather is finally good. I need to be working outside! I don’t have time for injuries. 🫤

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: amending soil and planting the first potatoes! (video)

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Today, I was able to finally get to that bed along the chain link fence, and get some potatoes planted!

I must say, though; it really was hitting home for me, how much I need higher raised beds. The narrower bed did mean I could reach across it just fine, but my goodness, the whole process was painful. It didn’t help that I was working during the hottest part of the day! We reached our expected high of 16C/61F, while the “feels like” was 21C/70F, at the time I finally got inside. I think I spent about 3 hours on the job, including hydration breaks. I was definitely not going to push myself in this heat.

Yeah, I can hear you folks from the south, giggling at me. 😉😉

Once I was done, I even remembered to take more painkillers before settling down at my computer to upload the video files I took. It doesn’t take long for the whole body to stiffen up, and I end up hobbling around looking in worse shape than my husband, even on his worst pain days!! 😄😄

I still prefer it over housework. I must say, it was great to come in when I saw done, to a house that smelled like cleaners instead of cats! 😁😁 My daughter is awesome.

I had fun putting this video together, including picking music that much better fits me and what I like.

There’s even bonus Syndol, being incredibly snuggly, while I sat in the shade to get some rest and hydration.

The 10 day forecast has changed, yet again. We went from expecting more rain and cooler temperatures to heat and mostly sunny. Tomorrow, we’re now supposed to reach 20C/68F! Which means I need to make sure to get to work on the other beds earlier in the day, before it starts getting too hot.

Which means I should probably get to bed before midnight, for a change!

I hope you enjoy the video!

The Re-Farmer

Growing things!

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We finally have some warm and drier weather today! It’s already 14C/57F, and we’re expected to have a high of 16C/60F.

I think I counted 27 yard cats this morning, but they were running around so much, I can’t be sure. What was funny to see, as I was trying to count, was a skunk suddenly come running around from behind the storage house, just like one of the cats, going for the kibble house! Not the little one I’ve been seeing, but a big on. My guess, a pregnant mama. I scared her off with the hose, because I wanted to make sure the cats got the food first. I know she’ll show up later.

I was happy to see Broccoli – she even let me pet her! We’ve started to do more frequent, smaller feedings, so that there’s something there when she is able to leave her kittens in her secret place and come eat. I was even able to get a glance under her and, from what I can see, she has 2 active nips. I think the largest litter she’s ever had has been 3 kittens. Hopefully, that will be the norm this year, and not litters of 5, 6 or even 8, like last year! At least most of them turned out to be male, though we did manage to get some female kittens indoors. There’s just one I can’t get at that I think it female. The other females are mamas from last year.

We really, really need to catch these mamas!! They are not cooperating at all. *sigh*

Oh, I just got some updates on the Wolfman this morning. He eye is healed up well, and there are potential adoptees coming to see him.

Much to my shock, Wolfman has taken to hissing, flattening his ears, and hiding, any time strangers come be. He also only lets their youngest daughter pick him up – he used to love being picked up! – and always hisses at the Cat Lady’s mother, who helps care for the cats. The poor guy must be so stressed out from, first, suddenly being taken to a new place, then going to the vet so often, then having to get his eye treated regularly. Poor baby. It’ll take time, but that just makes it harder to adopt him out. Especially when people coming over don’t even get to see him, because he’s hiding!

All in good time, I guess.

But I digress!

My morning rounds now includes checking the various growing things. There is still nothing showing up with the peas and spinach. Not the carrots, either, but carrots do take much longer. I’m surprised about the peas and spinach, though, even with the cooler weather we’ve been having. Hopefully, the seeds have survived and things will start sprouting as we get warmer days again. These need cooler weather to germinated, though, so… we’ll see!

We have more snow crocuses blooming, including our first – and so far, only – purple one. We have a few more yellow ones showing up. Mostly, we’re seeing the white ones, as well as the white with a hint of purple.

The grape hyacinths won’t be blooming for a while, but we are starting to see their distinctive clusters of leaves showing up all over the area they are planted in. My daughter’s tulip patch is also looking pretty good. I’m really looking forward to seeing what those “new” tulips that came up next to the saffron crocus turn out to be. I’m about 95% sure they are the Bull’s Eye tulips, but there was another variety planted there, too.

Oh! I’m remembering wrong!

It’s a good thing I’m journaling all this, here on the blog. I just looked up what I wrote about it, back in the fall of 2020. Only Bull’s Eye tulips were planted there.

We got them as a newly available tulip from Veseys, but they carried the variety for just the one year, I think. I suspect a lot of people did not have success with them. If I do a search, I can find other places that carry them, though, and they are listed as being zone 3 hardy. Well, we’ll see! It’ll be awesome if, after all this time, they actually show up! The idea that the bulbs would survive all this time, without any growth emerging, would be pretty amazing. Actually, I think some did show up that first spring, but the deer decimated the tulip patch, so for any tulips to show up after that is pretty amazing. It’s a bit of an eyesore to have the wire fencing around it, but there isn’t much choice!

More and more garlic is starting to come up, too! I’m quite happy to see them, after thinking most may not have survived the winter.

I’m not so happy to see how much crab grass is growing in the tiny raised bed, though. We pulled as many rhizomes as we could find at planting time, but it’s pretty much impossible to get it all. They’ll come back from the tiniest pieces.

I’m quite looking forward to having scapes to harvest!

After the garlic bulbs are harvested, which should be in late June or early July, this little raised bed is going to get refreshed and amended with the granulated sulfur and peat. We’ll be able to do that with the long bed against the retaining wall, too, as well as the short section of the wattle weave bed, as those will not have anything else planted with the garlic. The bigger rectangular bed in the old kitchen garden has garlic growing all down the middle, so there is room to plant other things on either side. I do hope to be able to amend the sides before we plant anything with the garlic.

Things are looking dry enough that we should be able to finally plant potatoes in the bed that’s been solarizing. The plastic is still there, but I don’t know how much solarizing actually happened, considering the rainy and overcast days we’ve had, since it was laid down. With the bed made narrower, though, it’s actually got more soil than the brick edging can contain. Since we don’t have the materials to raise the bed higher, yet, plus I want to work peat and sulfur into it first, it looks like I’ll have to actually remove soil from the bed. Which is okay. The excess can be used to top up the chimney block planters nearby.

So that’s my goal for today. Get that bed amended and planted with potatoes. I might actually be able to get both types of potatoes in there. We do still have Red Thumb and Purple Peruvians from last year that we could plant. They were so small, though, we didn’t really use them often. The fingerlings are also odd shapes, so getting them clean in preparation for cooking was not worth the bother. That’s why we still have some left! However, if we can increase the acidity in the soil enough, they might actually go much better. It might be worth trying, somewhere.

First things first, though. Gotta get the ones we bought, into the ground!

The Re-Farmer

Well, that was … ick

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We still have the fans going in the new basement, and I wanted to check on them. Since the new blower fans are aimed at the new basement stairs, I went through the old basement, which gave me a chance to check how the floors are, with all the rain we’ve been having.

There were a few damps spots starting to show through the concrete, so I opened up the floor drain. The weeping tile under the new basement flows through there, to the septic tank, but there’s no P trap between the floor drain to the septic tank. That allows gasses to back up into the basement, unless we cover the hole with plastic, then put the drain cover over it.

I lifted that up and found the drain was full to the top! There also wasn’t any movement in the water that I could see. Clearly, it was draining at least somewhat, or it would have backed up into the basement.

Between the floor drain and the wall, there is another access to the pipe to the septic tank. The cap is highly corroded, so opening it requires loosening a pair of strap fasteners, then fighting it loose.

We have an old hose with one end cut off that we leave permanently attached to the cold water tap the washing machine used to be hooked up to, just for clearing the drains. Usually, I can just shove the hose through, all the way to the septic tank, then turn the water on to clear away any debris. This time, however, it wouldn’t go through. The other thing we keep handy for times like this is an old wire chimney sweep. One end has a brush attached, while the other has the tip bent back on itself, forming a rounded end. The wire is strong enough, while still being flexible, to punch through just about anything. I had to resort to that, to get through whatever was clogging the pipe, and then I could get the hose through, but without turning the water on, yet.

The water in the floor drain moved a bit, but did not drain.

Hmmm….

When we first discovered we had issues here, we had a plumber auger the pipes, and he pulled a matt of roots out from between the two openings. This is when we realized the weeping tile under the new basement had sand getting in, and tree roots were growing through, all the way past the floor drain. This is something else we now check regularly. Lately, I could see small roots coming through, but nothing major.

With the water not moving out of the floor drain, I reached in to pull at a few visible roots.

They just broke.

After several other attempts just lead to more breaking of roots, I took a look through the other opening. At the bottom, where the floor drain joins the main pipe, I could see a few roots. Nothing much. Still, I reached in and pulled.

And pulled.

And pulled again!

I pulled out a mat of roots, with sand stuck in them, just as big as the one the plumber pulled out, some three years ago!

It still didn’t drain much, though.

So, it was back to using the wire from the old chimney sweep some more, then trying to push the hose through.

I knew I finally succeeded when, not only did the floor drain start to empty, the septic pump turned on moments later!

Once the floor drain was done, I turned the water on and started hosing out the drain from both openings.

Hmm… I didn’t think of it until now. I should have run the hose through the other way, towards the new basement, too. That section is probably full of sand and roots. There’s nothing I can do about the roots, but I could wash away the sand, at least.

But not now.

Once everything seemed to be flowing well again, I closed up the overflow access pipe again, then covered the floor drain. After cleaning up and putting things away, though, I was left with a very wet floor!

So I went and checked on the other basement.

I think the carpet on the steps is finally dry, but I left one blower on it, just in case. I took the other one and set it up in the old basement, to dry the floor there.

I so love these new blower fans! Not only are they safer than the old blower, they are much lighter and easier to set up! Plus, they have power cords long enough that I could plug it right into the outlet, and didn’t have to use an extension cord.

We’ve made a point of clearing those drains fairly regularly, but I guess we had a recent growth spurt of roots coming through! There must be some sort of change in in the pipe between the floor drain and the overflow access, for the sand and roots to build up there, even when it seems like there are almost no roots at all when looking through the openings.

I wonder if this was the ultimate cause of our other drainage issues!

I’m glad I found the mess and cleaned things up. There is some sort of bottleneck in the pipe between the basement and the septic tank, roughly 3 or 4 feet from the overflow access, judging by how much hose it takes to hit it. Whatever it causing it feels very hard and doesn’t get any bigger, even after clearing and hosing the pipe repeatedly. The only way to know for sure what the problem is would be to send a camera though the pipe. That section of pipe is cast iron, so I can think of a few things that could be causing it.

Another reason we need to win a lottery jackpot! If, for example, that pipe needs to be replaced, we’d have to break through the concrete floor to access it. With the state of the walls in that basement, there’s a good chance it would compromise them; they are already crumbling. The weeping tile in the other basement needs to be dealt with, but that is so beyond our means to get done, I don’t want to even think about it. Then there’s all the other stuff, much of which is just getting old and worn house after decades of use.

Well, there’s only so much we can do, and there’s no point in worrying about something outside our control.

I’ll just keep telling myself that.

Meanwhile… I think it’s time for a shower, and more laundry!

Ew.

The Re-Farmer.