I headed out this afternoon to check on the yards and gardens, to see what damage, if any, the storm caused.
Thankfully, the garden is all fine, and the only damage I found was a broken branch.
A very large branch, mind you!
I almost missed it! It had fallen into the “living fence” my mother had planted, which was holding it up.
Getting it down was a bit risky, though. I had to get right under a hawthorn to be able to pull it out. After I managed to get it far enough I could move further away, I took a look and realized just how close I came to getting my back impaled by many very sharp thorns! Those things are deadly!
You can see more clearly, in the second photo of the slideshow above, just how large the branch turned out to be. I dragged it out closer to the fire pit, where there’s more room to break it down, but left it for now. I don’t know what the humidex put us at, but we were at 30C/86F at the time. As I write this, we’ve cooled down to 28C/82F, and with the humidex putting us at 32C/90F. That little bit of exertion was enough to leave me almost as soaked with sweat as I was when I got caught in the storm!
Before I checked the yard, though, I went to check on the septic expeller. Normally, I’d go through the barn to do this, but my brother’s tractor is in the way! I tried to go around, but there’s just too much junk in the old cow stalls on either side. So I had to make my way through the tall grass – I swear, some of it is as tall as I am! – to the vehicle gate. It has both a chain across it, and the renter’s electric fence wire, to keep the cows out. The cows have been rotated out, though, so the electric fence is off right now.
This is what I found when I pulled the pipe out.
In the first two photos, you can see black part way up the pipe, where it then ends abruptly. Which means that the greywater has been going up into the outer pipe, but only so far. It’s not overflowing.
I brought the pipe to the yard and hosed it off, then ran water through both ends of the pipe.
There is no clog in the pipe at all.
So… what does this tell me?
It could be that the venturi was simply not seated properly at the bottom of the pipe. Rather than going through the venturi and being expelled out the top, the greywater was going into the outer pipe, but then draining into the soil around it fast enough that it never overflowed at the top.
Or there is something wrong at the bottom of the pipe that prevents a proper seal once the venture is set in the bottom.
I’ve sent the images to my brother, in hopes he has a better idea. He would remember the actual installation of all this, and probably helped do it. I was just too young. All I remember is the trench dug from the well towards the barn. I don’t even remember the pipes being laid down in the trench.
My hope is that it’s just the pipe wasn’t seated properly when I cleaned up around there, back in early July. I’d taken the pipe out to check it, but I was sure I’d set it back in properly. You can actually feel when it pushes into place.
I’m leaving it out for now and will take it back tomorrow, and see what I can see inside the outer pipe. With the inner pipe removed, the outer pipe should fill up faster when the pump runs, and actually overflow. If it does, I should see signs of that.
It would be really awesome if all it is, is the pipe not set properly! If that’s at, and water is flowing through the expeller properly again, that means we don’t need to call anyone and possibly need to get it excavated!
I’m just glad we are finding this problem now, and not in the winter!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 