Oh, for crying out loud.

Our septic pump isn’t draining again.

We’ve been fighting with this all winter, finally getting the pump fixed, with a surprise find, and the diverter added in January while the ejector was still frozen.

Since we got the ejector thawed and the diverter was no longer being used, I’ve been checking the pump pretty regularly. Not obsessively, like I did for the first while, but still frequently.

One of the things I noticed, and even managed to time, is that the pump takes longer to drain the tank than it used to. Talking to my brother, I was thinking there might be more gunk stuck in the back valve. My brother suggested there could also be gunk partially blocking the venturi valve at the bottom of the ejector. Not something we could check until spring. The back valve on the pump would also be checked. We really want to avoid opening things up if we can, as that risks breaking things, and then we’d really be hooped. So, I just monitor.

I noticed that the water level in the filter started to drop, from filling the cannister entirely, to stayed at the level of the inflow opening. It wasn’t running dry, though, and seemed to stay steady, so I would sometimes top up the cannister after the pump was done, adding a bit of dish detergent to break up any grease that might be coating the pipes to from the cannister to the pipe and maybe clearing away anything in or around the back valve.

I hadn’t done that in a while, as the water level was staying the same and things were working.

When I heard the pump running last night, I decided to check it. Things seemed to be flowing as usual, but it was getting hard to see through the lid of the filter. It was starting to get cloudy from grease and grime.

So when the pump stopped, I opened the filter to wash the inside of the lid. I gave a squirt of detergent into the cannister, then scrubbed the lid at the old laundry sink next to the pump.

Normally, I would have then topped up the filter cannister with water, then put the cover back on.

This time, however, I found the water level in the cannister had actually gone UP – and was still going up, and began to overflow!

I popped the lid on and tightened the ring, and the water level stopped rising.

There are two openings in the filter cannister. Inflow and outflow. With the back valve, water only gets in through the inflow. But the pump was off. When the filter first gets opened, there is a gurgle as water in the cannister drains into the inflow pump, because, gravity. There should never be inflow when the pump is not running, because that would be water running uphill, so to speak.

The other alternative is the water was coming from the bottom. If the back valve was not properly closed, because something is caught in it again, liquid in the pipe to the ejector (and there is always some liquid in there) could flow back into the pump and through the back valve, into the cannister. Again. Gravity. The outflow pipe from the pump itself to the ejector is vertical for a few feet, then runs horizontally along the wall, out the basement and to the ejector.

Once things were closed up, all we could do was wait until the next time the tank was full enough to trigger the pump.

Which was this morning, while my daughter was in the shower.

I heard the pump turn on and it ran for a while before I was able to head down.

Which is when I saw there was NO water flow.

The cannister water level had dropped to the level of the inflow opening, but there was no outflow. Suds in the water showed me that the pump had not gone off during the night, while I was asleep.

I stopped the pump, primed it, turned it on again.

There was an initial splash from the inflow pipe, but no outflow. All it did was make more suds.

I tried again.

Still no outflow.

So I turned off the pump and let my daughter – who was still in the shower – know what was happening.

I then got ready to check on the ejector, in case that was frozen again. It was early enough that the outside cat stuff wasn’t done, so I did that first, then headed towards the barn.

I hadn’t been checking the ejector recently, because of the dangerously cold temperatures we’ve been having. The ejector has heat tape around it, and is sheltered on three sides.

When I got to the ejector, I could see the splash zone in front of it was much smaller, but with the cold we’ve been having, that’s to be expected. The water simply froze faster.

The heat tape was warm, so that was still working, and the nozzle at the top was clear. No evidence that the ejector is frozen again.

While I was doing that, my daughter set up the honey pot in the bathroom again.

*sigh*

I took video of what was happening and sent to my brother. The first thing I would want to do is check that back valve, but we don’t have the tools to do it. Specifically, a heat gun to soften the pipe so it can be taken apart and put back together.

If worse comes to worse, we should be able to set the diverter back up again. It was never put away, with the end just set aside. I didn’t want to have a hole in the wall to close up in the winter, so the pipe is still running through it.

I hate to ask this of him, but I really hope my brother is able to come by tonight to work on this. He hasn’t seen the messages I’ve sent to him yet, though.

Meanwhile, this afternoon, I’m going into town to get that tire on the truck checked. I made sure to check it this morning, after going to the ejector, and it seems to be holding air fine. When I found it low, yesterday, the truck had not been used for several days since the tire got fixed.

Since I’m going to be in town, anyhow, I’ll bring our water jugs to refill at the grocery store after the tire is checked and fixed.

Tomorrow, my daughter and I have our double medical appointment. We will be leaving early, as our first stop will be at the other medical clinic, where I will pick up my medical files to transfer to my new doctor, and get the bloodwork requisition for my mother. I will make sure to check the date of her last blood tests, as they are supposed to be a month apart. I’ll be taking her in to get that done in either late February or early March. Probably early March. Then, the day after tomorrow, I’m doing my mother’s grocery shopping. Next week, we start our stock up shopping trips to the city, and in the middle of that, my daughter has some medical scans that are being done in the town to the north of us. We’ve never been to their hospital/health care centre before.

So getting that tire checked today is pretty important!

Losing our septic again, on top of this, is just s*** icing on a s*** cake.

I am so tired of the plumbing in this place. I understand why we have the system we do, but I really wish was had a gravity septic system, not an ejector system. The less technology there is, the less there is to break down – and I say this as someone who loves my technology!

So.

Tired.

The Re-Farmer