The septic guy has come and gone, and the news turned out to be much better than I expected.

But first, the cuteness.

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The kittens are getting very comfortable around the sun room and the house, running and playing together. Even the smallest ones are rough housing with the older kittens. Then they all pile together, sometimes in one big group, sometimes in several smaller ones, and nap.

It’s so flippin’ adorable.

Back to the less adorable stuff.

We closely monitored the septic pump all night. I went to bed early, since I wanted to get up very early to drive to a bank machine and take out cash to pay the septic guy. Before I went to bed, I heard the pump start running, so I went down to keep an eye on it. At the end, it did the thing again; the filter suddenly emptied of all liquid, but the pump kept running, dry. Thinking of what the septic guy told me on the phone, about how it sounded like we had an air leak somewhere, I shut it off manually, primed the filter, and turned the pump back on again, making sure to check if anything seemed to not be sealed properly. As soon as I flicked the switch, the pump started running, drained the filter, and kept running. So I repeated the process a couple more times until I flicked the switch, and the pump stayed off. I saw no sign of any leaks, and when I opened the top of the filter, there was most definitely a tight seal.

Everything worked the way it should, for the rest of the night.

I know this because every time the pump started running, I went back down to check. My intent to get to sleep early went right out the window. My daughters were going to check on it regularly during the night, but I’m the only one that can actually hear when the pump starts running, so I ended up checking anyhow. The girls still checked on it, too. That basement saw more traffic in and out in one night than it has in years! 😄

Which means I got no sleep last night. I didn’t finally get an hour or two of sleep until past 5am.

Oh… the pump just turned on. Gotta keep an ear out on it…

Okay, so I couldn’t do that. I had to go down and keep an eye on it.

It worked perfectly.

Anyhow. Where was I?

Oh, yes.

By about 7:30, I was on the road to my nearest bank branch, in the town my mother lives in, took out some cash and put some gas in the tank, since we’ve got a trip to the vet tomorrow, with whichever four males we can get into the carriers before we feed the outside cats.

Once back at home, I made sure the gate was left open, then did some work around the house until he arrived.

When he got here, he stopped in front of the garage, then got out to check the conditions. We still have standing water at the vehicle gate into the yard. There are ruts in the entry just from driving through with our truck. Walking through where he would be backing up together, we could see there could be problems. He did NOT want to back into the yard with that super heavy truck, and get stuck!

So, he first did a visual check on the tank. The pump had clearly run fairly recently. Everything looked the way it should.

Next, he wanted to check the pump itself.

When I checked on it earlier, I remembered his questions about vibrations and the possibility of a crack at the fittings. With that in mind, I grabbed a brick and a thin piece of Styrofoam that was no longer being used for something else, and set it under the filter. The filter basically floats above the concrete, held up by the pipes. I figured the weight of the water in there might be a possible contributing factor, so it is now supported. When he saw that and I explained I’d just added it this morning, he said it was a good idea.

He checked all the fittings and connections, then we opened up the filter to check that. He examined the condition of the O ring, while I topped up the water in the filter reservoir. It was an inch or so lower than it had been, but not so low that the inflow opening at the top was exposed. We put the cap back on, and everything looked fine.

He asked me a number of questions, wracking his brain, trying to figure out what was going. Then he asked about the outflow. Did we have an expeller or a septic field?

We have an expeller.

Was the pipe white or black?

White.

That got his attention, and he wanted to see where the water gets expelled.

This is just past the fence around the outer year, in the area the renter rotates his cows over to graze. They aren’t here, yet, so the grass is really tall. Of course, the grass in the outer yard is tall, too, since we can’t mow it. We made our way through and went to where the pipe was.

Or, should I say, where the pipe should have been.

The grass was so tall, it was hard to see, but we made our way to where it should have been, and couldn’t find it! I was having a bit of a heart attack, thinking it had been knocked over some how (it would have take a LOT for that to happen), but it wasn’t even lying on the ground.

Then he spotted it, hidden not only by the tall grass, but over handing willow branches.

The willows are fuller than I’ve ever seen them!

Unfortunately, the expelled water isn’t flowing in the direction it should, as there is too much debris, so there we had an area full of water we couldn’t get through. We were, however, able to go around from the other side.

When we got there, and he was checking out the pipe, water started flowing out. The pump was running. He popped the cap off, with the narrow, inner pipe attached, and pulled it out.

I commented that I had no idea that came out so easily.

It shouldn’t he told me. !!!

He started examining the bottom of the pipe he’d pulled out. Meanwhile, the larger, outer pipe filled with water and began overflowing, as it should. He’d brought along a long screwdriver and used that to poke into the bottom of the inner pipe, and I could see debris falling out. He popped it back on place, and water started flowing through it much better than before.

This clog was most likely the source of our problems!

As we walked back to the house, he told me that gunk inside the pipe running from the house to the inner pipe he’d just cleared would be breaking loose in chunks and getting stuck at the bottom of that inner pipe. He mentioned a chemical product with enzymes that they use. I told he, we do use the SeptoBac (which is specifically for the tank), as well as a product for maintaining the household pipes. This commercial stuff they use is much, much stronger, and designed specifically to clear these pipes that run underground.

He told me that if it gets clogged again, to take that inner pipe and cap off completely, and leave it off for about a month. The water will overflow the outer pipe, like it did while we were there, and that would give it a change to wash out the gunk in the pipes. He said this is a pretty common problem, too.

We checked the pump again and everything was fine. He took off the ring holding the clear cap in place, but the seal was so tight, he couldn’t take the cap off. I’m used to it, so I was able to pop it off. The water level was just a bit lower than before, so I topped it off (I keep a bucket of water in the old laundry sink, just for this) and we closed it up again.

He said to keep an eye on it over the next few days, and if we have a problem, to call him again. With it working, he was not going to empty that tank; there was no need, and no need to risk getting his truck stuck in our yard!

I asked him what we owed him, and he said nothing! He did not charge us for his time! I know he, technically, didn’t do any repairs, but he still spent at least half an hour, figuring things out.

He is so awesome! I’m glad to be having the septic guy checking all this out, too. Normally, we would have called a plumber, but who is going to know a septic system better than a septic guy? Especially an old and more uncommon system like ours.

So we are now on monitoring duty, and hopefully things will be back to working the way they should.

Plus, a nap.

I really, really need a nap.

I might even be able to sleep through the sound of the pump running, now!

The Re-Farmer