That is -23C/-9F with a wind chill of -35C/-31F. I took this screen shot after I came inside, and it was actually colder than when I first headed out! In fact, even as I was about to take the screen shot, I saw the wind chill drop another degree.
Brutal.
I did manage to do a bit of shoveling and going around to make sure various solar panels were clear of snow. The ones for the lights in the kibble and water shelters were completely buried.
When I got to the gate to brush snow off the trail cam solar panel there, I had to get these pictures.
The photos do not do it justice. Those are the largest sundogs – rainbow or otherwise – I’ve ever seen. You can just see a hint of a complete halo.
Sundogs and halos around the sun or moon happen only in extremely cold temperatures. The stronger and brighter the sundogs, the colder the temperatures.
Needless to say, I did NOT check the ejector. I wasn’t going to uncover it and expose it to this cold. With the bright sunshine, the black tarp should absorb some heat, while protecting the heat tape around the ejector from the cold. The heat tape has all sorts of safety features to keep it from overheating, and is just warm enough to keep pipes from freezing. It wouldn’t take much for temperatures and wind chills like this to basically negate anything it’s accomplishing. I’ll see what the conditions are like this afternoon and decide if it is worth slogging out there to uncover it and check things. We’re only supposed to warm up another degree for the high of the day, but if the wind chill drops, that will make the difference.
On a completely different note, today the girls tested out the Instant Pot with rice for the first time. All the recipes and instructions are for Jasmine or Basmati rice. The rice they prefer is a sushi type rice that usually needs to soak in cold water for half an hour before cooking. I got them an Instant Pot cookbook and they looked at various rice recipes, but the chart that came with the Instant Pot said for 4 minutes for all plain white rice (longer for brown rice). They went with 4 minutes, and it seems to have worked fine.
Once they were done with it, I tried it out myself for the first time, to make a beef stew. I found a basic recipe, though I had to substitute a couple of things – carrots for rutabaga, for example.
The cookbook then said to set the pot to manual for 18 minutes.
Our model of Instant Pot doesn’t have a “manual” setting. It does have a rice setting, which put the time at 12 minutes. It has a meat/stew setting that put it at 35 minutes.
We both used the “pressure cook” setting, which seems to be the equivalent for “manual” on our machine, as it allowed us to select heat levels and time ourselves. The stew is cooking as I write this – oh! it just started beeping! – so we shall see how it turns out.
It smells amazing, that’s for sure!
Time to see if I can have myself a nice hot bowl of stew on this cold, cold day!
We also had no way of knowing how or why we were wrong!
My brother, saint that he is, came out today to work on both the frozen ejector and the septic pump problem.
My SIL dropped him off, as he would be taking their car that they loaned us, back. The first thing he did was head to the ejector – he was here for an hour before we even saw him! He set up a low power heater around the ejector and covered the whole thing with a tarp to hold what little heat there was.
When I came out to join him, I was surprised by how much is was snowing. There had been no snow at all when I did the morning rounds and opened the gate for them. We ended up having what felt like a light snow, though it was actually heavier than it seamed, it was so calm out, the whole time.
He had spent yesterday evening running around all over the city, looking for the parts and pieces he needed for the septic pump. With the water leaking out of the filter, he concluded that the back valve was leaking. The pictures he asked me to take and sent to him helped a lot, as he couldn’t quite remember the details on the pump.
Once he did as much as he could around the frozen ejector, I helped him bring in his tools and supplies into the basement.
He came well prepared. A habit he got into when he would come here to fix things for our late father, because all Dad’s tools were scattered all over, or “borrowed” by our vandal.
First, I need to explain what we were wrong about.
When we first started having issues, I was thinking the pump itself was the problem. I thought it was about 20 years old and, which all the plumbing issues we had and with it running dry for way too long at times, I was thinking it was wearing out. It was even starting to sound worse.
I was wrong.
My brother replaced the pump only about 10 years ago, got the best pump available at the time, and he had full confidence in it.
The company that installed the ejector also thought it was the pump, with not enough pressure going through the venturi valve, causing the ejector to freeze.
He was… partially right. There was low flow, so low pressure, but it wasn’t because of the pump.
Other thoughts from various people, including me:
– that there was an air leak somewhere in the pipes from the tank to the pump. – the O ring was failing – the pipe from the house to the ejector was starting to get filled with gunk – gunk from inside the pipe to the ejector was breaking loose and clogging the venturi valve – the ground around the venturi valve was too saturated (which may still have been a contributing factor)
While it sounds like we’re talking about two problems – the frozen ejector and the septic pump problems – once we set up the emergency diverter, we got more of a sense that the problem around the pump lead to the ejector freezing. Thawing the ejector is its own problem.
With the water draining out of the filter, my brother conclude that the back valve was broken and wanted to replace it.
He was half right.
He was going to replace a whole section of connectors and a bit of pipe, removing the original back valve completely, and installing a new one, in line.
I’ve actually uploaded a bunch of short videos, because photos could not do it justice. Here is the first one. Here, the section of pipe and elbow connectors has been removed, but not the back valve.
That is a BIG chunk of fabric! The fact that the pump worked at all with that in there is amazing!
With that filter installed after we moved here, we know it had to have happened before then. I don’t know when the other filter was finally removed, because it never worked. My guess is the fabric got into the pipes somewhere in that time between filters.
The only way I can think of how that got into the system is either by getting flushed down the toilet somehow, or it fell into the tank at some point when the lid was open.
It could well have taken years to get sucked into the pipe and work its way through all the elbow connectors. There are three on either side of the filter, and even when there was just a straight pipe before this filter was installed, the elbows were still there.
Then, once it got through the pipe, it got forced through the valve, where it could go no further.
Upon removing the fabric, my brother looked over the valve, and it was undamaged.
So he just put everything back together as it was, with fresh Teflon tape on the threads.
One of the other things he did was set up the switch by-pass. Right now, we have a switch on the wall to turn the pump on and off manually – but the pump won’t run unless the pill switch in the tank is high enough to trigger it. He’d set up the wiring before, but they were tucked behind the switch plate. He set the wires to they were now outside (after I turned the breaker off, of course) and connected them, so that when the switch was turned on, the pump would run immediately.
Before starting work on the pump, he ran it to drain the tank. It had run not that long before, so there wasn’t much in there, but he wanted to make sure it was empty before he started taking off pipes and draining what water was inside the pump itself. He was going to need to test it again later, so we had to run water for quite a while, just so he could have something in there to test the pump with, once everything was back together.
It takes a long time to fill that tank.
Eventually, though, we got it to the point where he could turn the pump on and test it out.
At the very end, you can see a sudden change in the flow. That’s when the tank was empty and the pump had to be shut off immediately.
What a thing of beauty. Everything was flowing well – just like when it was installed!
Which makes me think that piece of fabric was stuck flat against the inside of a section of pipe somewhere between the filter and the pump, because that filter and pump were working great at the start, and for quite some time after.
We’ve had other problems with the system that, in retrospect, were probably caused by that piece of fabric moving down the pipes a bit further, then a bit further, then a bit further.
There was absolutely no way anyone could have known.
Oh! I just heard the septic pump turn on as I write this. I’d checked the filter earlier, and it was completely full, and I know it’s pumping fine and faster than it has in probably years!
The only down side is the vibrate-y noises from where the emergency diverter makes contact with things.
Wow. The pump just turned off. That took less than two minutes, easily!
What an excellent pump.
I am so happy to be wrong about that pump!
Once that was done, my brother disengaged the bypass, so the pump would only turn on when triggered by the pill switch. My brother wanted to test it again, but it would take a while I left a tap running in the old laundry sink, next to the pump, but I made sure the rest of the family knew to use water, flush toilets, take showers, to fill that tank enough to test it again.
Then, it was time to head outside and work on the ejector.
In the first photo, you can see the fluid level is quite high, because my brother had poured in about half a jug of liquid ice melter – calcium chloride. This won’t damage the plastic pipes, but there is a brass fitting at the bottom that could potentially get corroded, but that would likely take a long time. Once things are thawed out, we can hook the pipe back on and anything down there will get flushed away when the pump sends fluid through.
In the next photo, my brother is using the heat gun on the copper pipe to try and get the ice inside the venturi pipe – the discharge pipe – thawed more. It had been frozen to the top before. When we got there and my brother started this, it was down about 2 inches. By the time we stopped, it was down about 4 or 5 inches.
We spent quite a bit of time out there in the falling snow, using the heat gun and the copper pipe and the calcium chloride to get more of it melted down. There was no way it was going to be thawed out completely, though.
For that, we used the heat tape that came in the mail yesterday. That’s the blue you can see in the third image. The glass tape that game with it wouldn’t stick, buy my brother brought electric tape that he kept in a pocket inside his jacket to keep it warm, and that worked. We ended up using the heat tape box to hold the sheet of metal roof out of the way, as it rests right against the pipe. Being frozen to the ground and covered in snow and ice, we can’t move it away. My brother dug through his tools in the barn and found something to bend it back.
The cap and elbow were put back on the ejector, but only loosely. We want to be able to pop them off easily to check on how it’s melting.
My brother did some scrounging and dug an old, rotten saw horse out of the snow to put over the ejector. This would keep the tarp from having contact with the ejector itself. The last thing we want is for it to snap off the elbow or something in the wind.
Last of all, the tarp was wrapped around the whole thing – black side out to absorb warmth from the sun (whenever we get sun next) and tied off a bit. If we get high winds from the south, it might still get blown off, but it can’t be tied down too tightly, or I’ll have trouble checking on it.
All of this took quite some time, with a few trips to the barn or the garage, etc. to find things we needed. At one point, I needed to go into the house. As I was leaving, I caught a light whiff of septic, so I went around to check on the outflow pipe.
The septic pump must have just shut itself off by the time I got there. I could immediately see a whole lot more snow had been washed away. In some areas, the flow goes under the snow, creating gaps in the snow above in places. While there was no water coming out of the outflow pipe, I could see through one of the gaps, water that was flowing fast. The pump was definitely working well!
Before he left, my brother checked the pump in the basement one more time – the filter was full to the top and the filter basket was floating, just like it should be – then checked the outflow pipe. He was surprised by the direction the water was flowing, but I wasn’t. There’s a reason I have a retaining wall at that end of the old kitchen garden!
Now that this is fixed, and we’ve had the clogged drained fixed, we need to use our water. Especially in the kitchen and laundry. We still need to set the washing machine drain hose back into the pipe – no one has needed to do laundry yet – and I plan to do a machine clean cycle. That uses straight hot water. We’re also going to keep up the drain maintenance routine we’ve already started, plus what the plumber recommended we do with the kitchen sinks every few days. Last night, I even flushed out the access pipe to the septic tank in the old basement floor with the hose, to make sure that second bottleneck was still clear. Having the laundry draining into the septic again should actually help keep that clear, too.
By the time my brother left, he’d been here about four hours, with a brief stop for lunch, working on all this!
My brother is allergic to cats, so I had lunch with him in his car.
Meanwhile, he can return all the parts and pieces he never needed to use, and get his money back!
We’re still blown away by finding that piece of fabric stuck in the valve. So utterly unexpected.
The fact that nothing was damaged by it is pretty amazing, too.
So we were all wrong about what was going on, and that’s just fine! With some of the possible causes, this is one of the easiest fixes there could have been.
As for the frozen ejector, it’s hard to say how long it will take for the calcium chloride to work its way down to the bottom. Then my brother will need to come back and switch the pipes so we can test it out and, hopefully, be able to leave it.
We might not be using the emergency diverter all winter, after all!
I would really like to be able to get that fluffy lady and get her spayed! She does sometimes let me pet her, but not very often of late.
This morning, I tried for a head count and got 29, which is the highest I’ve counted in a while. Not sure what to make of that, but cats will cat, I guess!
A brief update on our plumbing situation. Any time I hear a pump go off, I am checking the basement, even if it’s just the well pump. The septic pump makes a different sound now that the diverter is attached but, strangely, it sounds just like the fan in our bathroom!
There is still a leak somewhere, and I’ve had to top up the filter a few times. Sometimes, the filter cap will be tightly seals. Other times, it won’t be. There was one time I checked when I heard it go off, and the filter was low on water, but there was inflow happening. I waited and watched, and the inflow pressure increased as the water level in the filter increased faster than it drained out, and soon it was properly full and working right.
I updated my brother on all of this. He asked for some photos from different angles, and I figured he was planning to come out and see what he could do about it. Something he did eventually confirm, saying he was going to try something with the “back valve” on the pump. I assume there are valves, but I don’t know anything about what they are or where. I look forward to seeing what he does and learning more about it. Meanwhile, my SIL confirmed that she would be driving my brother out and drop him off, so he can take back their car that they loaned us.
My younger daughter and I needed to go into town to pick up our prescriptions today so, of course, we took advantage of the trip to run other errands.
This meant using the truck. I can’t be using my brother’s car, just because it’s there. I’d used the OBDII scanner last night and confirmed it was still the same sensor that was the issue, so there was really no excuse.
It ran just fine, but I really hate having the check engine light on, and the oil pressure gauge not working.
Our first stop in town was, of course, the pharmacy. My new painkiller prescription was filled yesterday, but my daughter’s was just put on file; when my prescription arrived, they called us about it, asking if I wanted it filled. They never called about my daughter’s prescriptions. They were going to need some time to fill it, so I left her to wait for it and did our other errands. The first was to return that security camera I’d picked up, so we could monitor the septic pump without running up and down the stairs all the time. We never did figure out why it wouldn’t connect to our WiFi.
The exchange was pretty straightforward and quick, so I had time to stop at a grocery store near the pharmacy. It’s not one we normally go to, but it was on the way. All I needed to pick up was butter, but on the way out I’d asked if my daughter had eaten anything, and she hadn’t. It was coming up on lunch time, and I knew she’d been up at around 3am and unable to get back to sleep. So I picked up something for her to eat as well.
That done, I went back to the pharmacy, where my daughter was still waiting. They didn’t have one of the meds as a generic in stock, so she got a name brand, instead. Another, they could only fill half of it. It didn’t take too much longer, though. My daughter used to work at this pharmacy, so she got to catch up a bit with former co-workers.
Since I was able to run our other errands while she waited, once everything was paid for, we were done in town.
This town, at least!
We were starting to run low on kibble, especially for the outside cats, so we made the trip to my mother’s town, next, and to the feed store.
The price on the 40 pound bags has gone up.
The lysine I’d ordered wasn’t in. It’s been quite a while since I requested it, so I was a bit surprised.
From there, we picked up some fuel and headed for home, with a quick side trip to the post office. I was giving one more day for the letter mail that got delayed by the postal strike. If it didn’t come today, I was going to assume it was lost and would have to make arrangements.
I was pretty happy to see that it had finally arrived – but also found a parcel slip. I was not expecting any parcels until next week!
The post office hadn’t reopened for the afternoon, yet, so I couldn’t pick it up. They’d reopen in only 20 minutes, though, so my daughter and I headed home and unloaded. She headed in to put things away, and I went back to the post office, just in time for it to reopen.
This is what my brother and I want to try on the ejector. We can’t use the 100′ extension cord my brother set up when he was going to try his heat gun, as it is for 2 prong plugs. We have two, but they are both in use right now. Once my brother retrieves his car, though, one will be freed up, as it’s currently what his block heater is plugged into. I don’t know that we’ll set that up tomorrow, though. If the source of the problem really is the over saturated soil under the ejector, thawing the stand pipe out isn’t going to do much good. It’ll just freeze again. And we certainly don’t want to be switching from the emergency diverter to the ejector on the pump, if only to have to switch it back again later.
We shall see what my brother thinks, when he gets here tomorrow.
Meanwhile, now that we no longer have a clogged drain from the kitchen sink, and the diverter is mostly working fine, we’ve been catching up on dishes and other cleaning jobs. We still haven’t needed to do laundry, though. I’m still on constant alert for the sound of the septic pump; I’m the only one that can hear it when it goes off, and only when I’m in my office/bedroom, which puts a limit on what I can get done.
I really hope whatever my brother has come up with, works!
I must say, though; it may be a pain in the butt to be constantly listening for and checking on that pump, things are a LOT more relaxed now that both the diverter is working, and that clogged drain is cleared!
Meanwhile, I’m hoping to get a much better night’s sleep tonight, with these new painkillers.
The important thing is, we can use our kitchen sink and laundry drain again! Yay!
We couldn’t wait until today to do our laundry, though, so yesterday we did something like four loads of laundry, with the hose draining out the door. The furthest end of the sump pump hose we’re using curls, preventing it from draining completely, so I kept going outside to lift the hose, from the door to the end, to get it empty before it froze.
This morning, we were expecting the plumber to arrive first, then a prescription delivery, hopefully before my daughter and I had to head out. My daughter had started her shower just as I was about to start heading outside for my morning rounds and to open the gate, when I heard a strange noise.
The septic pump had finally been triggered!
So I immediately dashed downstairs to check the filter.
Which was empty and running dry.
I shut the pump off, opened the filter, primed it again and turned the pump back on. It worked great! When it was done, the filter stayed full enough that the filter basket inside was floating and spinning slightly in the water – something I haven’t seen it do in quite a while!
From there, it was outside to feed and water the kitties, then do my usual checks, which this time included checking the outflow pipe. Everything looked clear, and there was no sign of backflow towards the house.
Yay!!!!
While doing my rounds, I got the truck running for a while, then popped in the OBDII scanner. The check engine light was on and the oil pressure gauge was still at zero. I did a full scan and got the same code as before: the oil pressure sensor that has already been replaced and cleaned.
At least it’s just triggering a check engine light, and not setting off the flipping alarm with the “turn off engine” warning.
From there, I cleared the codes and left the engine running until it shut itself off, as I’d used the remote starter to turn it on. Though it is much warmer today, I still plugged the block heater back in.
With our trip to the doctor’s office, though, I planned to use my brother’s car, which is parked and plugged in, outside. We had a bit of snow last night that needed to be brushed off, but that’s it.
Not long after I was back inside and checking the trail cam files, I got a call from the plumber. He was on his way and wanted to confirm directions to our place.
They can be a bit difficult to explain at times.
They got here soon after. Since the entry is where the laundry drain is, with the kitchen sink on the other side of the wall, I explained a what was going on there, then we went into the basement where I could show him the rest.
After looking over the pipes in old and new basements, as well as the plumbing under the sink, he decided to find a better way than trying to run his auger through where the last guy did. Access there is not easy, and it was put back together with adhesive. He didn’t want to cut anything there.
Since we knew the clog started past the laundry drain, he did it another way. He cut away part of the pipe in the root cellar, on the kitchen side of where the laundry pipe joined (not that he could have cut it on the other side, since it goes into a wall, there) and removed a couple of inches. It would then get sealed up with a rubber union and steel clamps, so that it would be easy to access, if we ever needed to have this done again. In fact, with our big drain auger, we’d be able to do it ourselves.
I don’t feel so bad about not trying to open things up where the other plumber went through now.
He used his smaller powered auger on the drain, and he really felt it when he hit the clog. After he worked on it for a while, with his assistant holding the other end of the pipe out of the way, he had his assistant go into the other basement to see if he could tell if the auger had reached the corner under the bathroom. I went along with him.
Not only had he reached the corner, but I could hear the tip of the auger rattling in the pipe near the old basement steps. He’d gone through the turn and was about 2/3s of the way down the other pipe to the septic tank.
After clearing things out, he sealed up the pipe, then headed for the kitchen to flush it. This will be our regular maintenance routine. He filled one of the kitchen sinks with straight hot water. After pulling the plug, he squirted some dish detergent into the vortex as it drained.
Then he did it again, with the other sink.
The first time, we could hear a lot of gurgling from the laundry drain pipe. A certain amount of that is normal, as we would be hearing the water pass by where it joined the main pipe. The second time he did it, we heard almost nothing from the laundry drain.
The assistant, meanwhile, was in the basement, making sure the new rubber union wasn’t leaking, and listening along the pipes. They couldn’t hear each other, so I went down and found him following the sound into the old basement. He could hear the water sloshing through the whole way.
I think the sinks were both filled and drained a total of three times each before he was satisfied.
I told him about what we’d found under the sink, and that my daughter had replaced everything but the trap, so he kept an eye on that, too. There were no leaks anywhere, so that was installed just fine.
While all this was going on, we chatted a fair bit. For some things, I explain the history of the plumbing, so far as I knew it. I even showed him our drain auger, and he quite approved. He let me know that, if we ever needed it, he does have a larger one. Hopefully, we never will!
He was one of the plumbers I have been talking to about the ejector, so while following the pipes, I showed him the diverter set up – and that the pump was triggered for the first time since the tank was emptied, just this morning. He was the one that has suggesting setting up an ice fishing tent over it with a heater, but we don’t even know someone we can borrow one from. He also suggested putting straw bales around the ejector, but we don’t have straw bales, either. We did get get straw, it was one of the big round bales, not the small square ones.
Oh, that reminds me…
While talking to the plumbing guy at the hardware store yesterday, we talked about the ejector and how to thaw it. He’s on an ejector system himself and said, this sometimes happen. I told him, it’s been some 50 years, and it’s never frozen before, so why now? He said it could be a few things and started listing some off. The only one I remember was when he said the ground could be saturated.
*dingdingding*
When they excavated down to the pipe to install the ejector, it was full of water. I even asked one of the guys if that was from the leaking old ejector, or if the water table was high. He told me it would be from the leaking ejector.
Which means the ground at the based of the new ejector was indeed saturated. Which would not have been a problem if this was done in the spring or summer. With nothing leaking anymore, it would have eventually drained away. The soil is clay heavy, so it might have taken a while, but it would eventually have dried up.
The ejector, however, was installed in… November? We were lucky not to have snow, which we did get, not long after.
Which means the water the drained to the bottom of the 4″ stack pipe had nowhere to go, and just kept building up and up, until it froze.
So… that rather eliminates any chance of us being able to use the ejector again until spring. The ground is already frozen, so even if we insulated around it, it wouldn’t make a difference.
*sigh*
We’ll figure it out.
The main thing is, we can now use our kitchen sink again!!!
In asking him why it would clog again so quickly after we’d already had it cleared just a couple of years ago, he said that having the laundry and kitchen drain into the main pipe so close together was not really an ideal situation. Between any grease from washing the dishes, to lint and such from the laundry, things build up pretty fast.
I’d been concerned about the pipe that didn’t get cleared, from the bathroom towards the septic. That, however, turns out not to be an issue at all. With all the water from showers and washing – even the toilet flushing – it would have kept that section of pipe pretty clear. There’s a lot less water running through from the kitchen to under the bathroom – and even less, when we started running the laundry drain outside. As the greasy water from the sink swirls its way down the pipe, the gunk would build up faster. Which is why flushing the drain with sink-fulls of hot water and detergent (he suggested using Dawn, as it is the best for grease cutting) regularly is recommended.
I asked him about using the bacteria and enzyme drain maintenance stuff, and he couldn’t really answer, as he doesn’t know much about it.
I also asked him about the possibility of the pipe from the house to the ejector getting clogged, and he said that was highly unlikely.
On top of all the other stuff we talked about, I mentioned that we want to replace the well pump, but there’s a risk of the foot valve breaking apart, so no one wanted to take the chance.
He pffffttt’d to that and said, just put in a check valve. No one really does foot valves anymore.
???
I’ve had three different plumbers look at that well pump. No one mentioned a check valve, so I asked him about it. He looked some up on his phone and found the style that would be used on our pump. He told me, just install that on the pump at the intake from the well, and don’t worry about the foot valve. Even if it breaks up, we’ll still get water.
I asked him, is this something that is new within the past few years?
Nope. They’ve been around for a while.
So now I wonder, why hasn’t any other plumber mentioned it??
Then, since we were walking around the three broken hot water tanks while looking around the basement, I told him about replacing the elements on the hot water tank recently, and what we found on the bottom. He told me, we need a water softening system to put a stop to that.
*sigh*
That’s something my husband has suggested, but a whole house system? That’s really expensive, and do we really want that for the entire house?
As to the cost, he was able to tell me that it’s $2500, installed, if he does it. He didn’t try to sell me on it; just let me know.
So all of that went fairly quickly. Before he left, I gave him my email address for him to send me the bill, so I still don’t know how much it will cost. I should get it tonight some time, but he told me that if I don’t, check my spam folder! That’s been happening a lot, lately, he told me.
That done, we can finally hook up the washing machine’s hose back to the drain pipe, but we haven’t done that, yet. Priority is catching up on dishes!
I wanted to head out early with my daughter for our appointment, but we still had the prescription delivery that I wanted to wait for first, so we could lock the gate behind us when we left. Not too long after the plumber left, someone used the washroom, and I heard the septic pump go off again. No surprise, considering how much hot water got flushed through the pipes!
I went down to check and…
It was running dry again.
I shut it off and primed the filter – the seal on that lid was quite tight – turned it on and it was working fine again. So fine, in fact, that it took only 2, maybe 2 1/2 minutes to drain the tank!
Hopefully, you won’t have to go to Instagram to wash this.
The moisture underneath is from the water used to prime the filter.
When it was done, the filter stayed nice and full. I paused to update my brother on it (I’d been keeping him up to date with the plumber the whole time, too). As I was doing that, I heard a strange noise from the filter.
You might need to turn up your volume to hear it. Somehow, there was air getting in.
I grabbed some paper towel and dried up everything around the filter and pipe joins, then watched and waited before checking them again. Everything was dry. There is no leak.
So what is happening???
One of the things I did a while back was put a brick and a very thin piece of Styrofoam under the filter to support the weight of the water in it. I ended up finding another thin piece to raise it up just a bit higher, so there is now no sag or play at all. I primed the filter again, and that bubbling did not happen again.
Were were good? I don’t know. But I did pass that on to my brother, too!
Not long after, the prescription delivery guy arrived, and my daughter and I were soon headed out to our appointments (after having to chase a kitten out from under my brother’s car!). We left early, making a brief stop in my mother’s town to pick up some lunch at the gas station – they had chicken kabobs available this time, which my daughter loves. Those sell out really fast, and they don’t seem to make more of them throughout the day. By the time we got to the clinic, we were only about 15 minutes early, so I’m glad we headed out when we did.
I went in first for my meet and greet. Her first question was whether or not I already had a doctor, and I explained about my previous doctor moving to another clinic, and having an interim doctor now. I’m sure she’d be fine to keep seeing me, but it’s just more convenient to have the same doctor as my daughter.
So this was mostly a question and answer session and I explained some of the issues I’ve been having, and she is now officially my doctor, too. I mentioned my painkillers just aren’t cutting it anymore, especially since I had to switch to acetaminophen. So I did get a prescription pain killer. I’d mentioned how bad the joint pain can get some days, where every joint in my body hurts. She asked me what supplements I was one, and I told her. She then recommended I go on a B complex instead of the B12 I’m on, as one of the other B vitamins should help me with the joint pain. She also told me to take double the recommended dose. I mentioned the Charlie horses I’ve been getting, but I have also run out of zinc, and suggested picking that up might take care of that, and she said yes. (I’ve also increased my salt intake, before I ran out of zinc, and that’s when the Charlie horses seemed to stop until just recently)
So once I was done, I went across the hall to the pharmacy to pick up the supplements while my daughter was seen next. Then I went to the grocery store that shared the parking lot and picked up a couple of small things we’d run out of at home. From there, I waited in the car for my daughter.
Which is when I got a test from my husband. He’s just picked up a call from the pharmacy for me. They’d received my prescription, and did I want to get it filled right away?
Talk about fast!
Of course, my husband had no idea what they were talking about, yet! So I called the pharmacy and said to go ahead and fill it, and that I’d likely pick it up tomorrow, since I was still in another town.
Then I got a message from my daughter clearing a calendar date in three weeks for another follow up appointment. So that was done, too.
My daughter got some adjusted medications and another prescription. Her bloodwork showed her to be vitamin D deficient. I wasn’t surprised by that. This is Canada, and it’s winter, after all! She has also been referred to an endocrinologist for her PCOS.
So tomorrow, we’ll both go into town to pick up our prescriptions.
This time, I plan to use the truck.
From there, we started for home. Along the way, we stopped in my mother’s town so I could go to a branch of my bank and take out cash, then we stopped at the home of the guy who empties our septic tank to pay our bill. With tip!
We made one more stop on the way back, at the post office. I wasn’t expecting any parcels yet, but there were a couple for my husband and some regular mail. The letter mail I’ve been waiting for since the strike delayed it, still isn’t in, though. This is getting ridiculous.
After that, we could finally head home. I’m sure glad for the longer days, as it wasn’t full dark, yet!
The first thing I did once we brought everything inside was do the evening cat feeding. My husband had let me know my mother had called (he does not answer calls from her), once I was settled, I checked her message. Apparently, when they delivered her new bubble packs, they didn’t deliver her inhaler. So I called her back and she told me her adjusted dose bubble packs were delivered, but there was no puffer. She then started going on about how it was a guy who delivered it this time, and she didn’t recognize him, etc. So I asked if she called the pharmacy to ask why it wasn’t there, and she said no, then tried to go back to talking about the delivery guy. I told her, she needed to call the pharmacy right away.
Which is when she asked if I could do it, because her English isn’t so good.
Ah. Okay!
Then she gave me the number, so I didn’t have to look it up.
The thing is, my mother’s doctor’s appointment was on Monday. Her prescriptions were delivered on Tuesday. Today is Thursday. Why didn’t she say anything on Tuesday??
So I called the pharmacy and quickly realized why my mother didn’t want to call herself. They have an automated answering service, which she has a hard time with at the best of times. With this one, after I made the first selection (after having to listen to a promo for vaccines first), it put me through another spiel for other choices. When I selected one of those, which turned out to be the wrong one. It took me to another and, as I was going through that, it started asking for things like the prescription number. WTF??? It did give the option to go back to a previous menus, and the net thing I knew, I was listening to the vaccine promo again.
I finally got to a real, live pharmacist.
They know be my now. 😄
When I explained what my mother had told me, the pharmacist said it was there. She’d put it in the bag herself.
I told her, my mother said it wasn’t, and she suggested it might be on the bottom of the bag, and described the box to me. It’s purple, so it would be easy to see!
I called my mother back and explained it should be in the bag with her bubble packs.
Oh! Let me go check.
It was there.
My mother had never looked in the bag. She had expected the delivery person to hand it to her seperately.
My mother was supposed to start her new bubble packs immediately, setting the current one aside, to be taken back to the pharmacy, so they could update the dose on one of her meds for her.
I didn’t get a chance to ask, but it sounds like she just kept using the same bubble pack instead of switching to the ones with the correct dosage in it.
*sigh*
I let her go, though, so she could go over the instructions for the inhaler.
I’m starting to wonder if she’s up to even using one.
Something I will have to follow up on.
Meanwhile…
This evening, I heard the septic pump go off again, so I went down to check. The filter was empty again! This time, however, I could see there was a very slow flow was water going in. It wasn’t running quite dry, but the flow from the tank was barely more than a splash. I stopped it and primed the filter again (it was tightly sealed), and it ran great after that. When it stopped, the filter was still full of water, and no sign of bubbles to show if there was some sort of air leak.
If this thing needs to be primed every time the pump goes off, that’s going to be a problem. I’m the only one that can hear it go off, and the camera I got to monitor it is going to be returned tomorrow, because it won’t connect to our WiFi.
This is incredibly frustrating.
If there is anyone more knowledgeable than me reading this and has some idea of what’s going on, please let me know! I’m running out of ideas.
As for me, I am done with this day.
I am so glad the plumber could come in this morning, and that we got that clog cleared. We learned a lot from him while he was here, too, and have steps to take to keep it from happening again – or at least keep it from happening again too soon!
I’m happy to learn about the check valve that would allow us to get that well pump changed and not worry about the foot valve.
I’m glad to finally and officially have a new doctor, and that my daughter got that referral to an endocrinologist, though it will likely take months before she actually sees one.
I’m glad the emergency diverter is working, even with the flow problems.
I’m thankful to have my brother’s car to drive today, even though it would have been just fine using the truck. I’m just paranoid about the truck. We need to get their car back to them soon.
I’m thankful for my other daughter’s financial help that paid for the septic guy, and is helping to pay for the plumber, too.
I may be done with this day, but it really was a very good day!
We keep several cat carriers in the sun room, so the cats will be used to them and hopefully not panic as much as we are able grab the more feral ones for spays and neuters. Sometimes, I will find cats just chilling in one of them.
Rolando Moon claimed it, this morning. 😊 Rondo Moon is the last of the originals, living here before we moved in, and cared for by my late father, still outside. We were willing to bring her in, and she has actually gone into the house voluntarily, then headed back outside. She has no interest in being an indoor cat!
Today is quite a bit warmer, as far as temperature goes, but I sure couldn’t tell when I did my morning rounds. It was -14C/7F at the time, but the wind chill was at -29C/-20F! The outside cats seem to be handling things well, for the most part. I haven’t been able to do a head count lately, but it does seem like there are fewer of them. There could be many reasons for that, but they move around so much, it’s hard to tell, and some show up for the food later on. I have seen cats going up and down our driveway on the trail cam, though, so hopefully they are just out visiting neighbours.
Speaking of cameras…
It looks like I’ll be returning the camera I picked up yesterday, to monitor the septic pump. It simply would not connect to our WiFi. It doesn’t tell me why. Just that it failed. We have two networks that I tried linking up to – one on our Starlink router, one on our Orbii router, which is there to ensure all parts of the house gets a good internet signal. It won’t connect with either of them.
Our septic pump still has not been triggered, so we still don’t know how well the emergency diverter will work until it does.
Meanwhile, we’re still dealing with the clogged drain to the kitchen and laundry.
My daughters tried to clear it again. This time, one daughter blocked the drain pipe for the washing machine while the other used the sink plunger in the kitchen. That thing does work really well!
Unfortunately, when my daughter uncovered the laundry drain again, gunk went shooting up out of the pipe! So the clog is basically right at where the laundry drain reaches the main pipe in the root cellar, causing anything from the kitchen to go up the laundry pipe instead of the main drain.
Once I had a chance, I made a couple of calls to plumbers. The first call, they were booked solid and new bookings are more than 2 weeks away. I had success with the second call. They, too, were busy, but his first response, when I told him what I needed done, was “definitely not today”. I asked about the next few days.
Long story short, he’s going to make us their first call tomorrow. Since they’re coming from the town to the north of us, they’ll get here around 9-10am. My younger daughter and I have our doctor’s appointments in the afternoon, but it should be done before we leave.
We might finally be able to do laundry without running a hose out the front door! That would help fill the septic tank faster, triggering the pump, so we’ll know how the diverter is working, too. It should be fine, but still… I’ve become as paranoid with our plumbing as with our truck!
I asked for some idea of what the bill will be. He said it depends on a few things, from how long it takes, to which machine he ends up using, etc., but might be as low as $150. I figure it will cost at least $300, but we’ll see.
So we have one more day of not being able to drain water down the kitchen sink.
I did get one thing planned accomplished. While doing my morning rounds, I used the foil insulation in strategic points on the outflow pipe for our emergency septic diverter. The pump has still not been triggered to empty the grey water, so this will ensure any contact point with cold supports will not freeze.
Hopefully. At least, if it does freeze there, it would be much easier to deal with it.
Once my morning rounds were done and breakfast was had, my plan was to head outside and start searching for something we could use to shelter the frozen septic ejector.
Then one of my daughters came over to let me know the kitchen sink was clogged. They’d started doing dishes, and the skinks would not drain. They did eventually empty, but very, very slowly.
My younger daughter – the only one able bodied enough to do this – cleared things stored under the sink to check the pipes.
Note the big crack in the brass fitting above the trap.
There was no way to take the trap off to clear the clog (drain cleaner did not work) without the brass breaking even worse.
Which meant a trip into town to get replacement parts.
That left me in a bit of a conundrum. The truck’s sensor issues are still a problem. I’d been idling the engine to get it to warm up and evaporate the moisture that is triggering the sensor, but the truck really needs to be driven. But the oil pressure gauge is at 0, and that check engine light was back on after I’d cleared the codes, yesterday. I could have taken my brother’s car, but he’s going to need that back, and this sensor thing isn’t going to go away if I don’t actually drive the truck.
But we’ve had so many things got wrong, I was really uncomfortable doing it. The truck had started fine, the engine is running smoothly, and the oil levels are good.
I ended up texting our mechanic and asked him is he was sure it was safe to drive – and to please humour my paranoia! 😄 He said yes.
I had wanted to go into town anyhow, to refill our water jugs, so I grabbed those and headed out, with a brief stop at the post office along the way. The letter mail I am waiting for still isn’t in, but a couple of packages made it, so that was good, at least.
The truck ran fine the entire trip, too.
Once at the hardware store, I got to talk to my favourite person in the plumbing department. He’s been helping me a lot!
After showing him the pictures, he gave me the parts and pieces to replace the brass T, making sure to get me the correct adhesive and explaining about putting it all together dry, first, then taking it apart to use the adhesive. We were pretty sure of the size needed, but if we were wrong, I could return the parts and get the right size.
From there, I made a quick stop at the grocery store to refill the water jugs, grab some pumpernickel bread, as the rye was gone, and ended up getting some lactose free cheese for the girls that was on sale.
When I got back, my daughter set about taking out the brass T – which turned out to have a lot more damage than was visible – then removing the trap to clear the clog.
It got rather messy.
Along with the parts and pieces, I picked up a drain clearer -, I don’t remember the proper name for it, but it’s a long flexible wire with a plastic scrubby tuft at the end. I also picked up a sink plunger. My daughter took everything apart and used the drain clearer on the pipes for as far as she could reach with it.
That got messy, too!
Then she put the trap back and moved on to putting together the new T pieces and do a dry install to make sure everything fit.
They didn’t.
It fit at the top, directly to one sink, and the bottom, to the trap. It was the pipe to the other sink that was the problem. The brass T’s fitting was almost flush, as you can see in the above photo. The new T’s fittings extended further. There wasn’t enough play in the pipe to be able to attach the T to the copper pipe.
That bit of copper pipe, meanwhile, was basically jammed into a length of PVC pipe, likely with the use of a heat gun. My daughter hoped to push it further in, just half an inch, but it just would not move.
Which meant cutting the copper pipe.
The 1 1/2″ copper pipe.
We don’t have a pipe cutter to do it. We could have used a hack saw, but the very idea of trying to cut a pipe in a crowded space – on that wiggles around, at that – was not acceptable.
Time to go back into town.
While my daughter was fighting with the new T, I had taken the time to clean the threads on the trap and was thinking it would probably be a good idea to get a new one. Just in case.
So, off to town I went!
By this time, several hours had passed, so my husband requested I make another stop at the grocery store for some heat and eats. No one was going to be making a from-scratch meal, today, that’s for sure!
I also brought along the brass T to show the guy at the hardware store. When I got there, it turned out he’d stepped out for something. I waited a while, looking at things and, after clearing it with my husband first (since it was coming off his personal budget), I picked up an indoor/outdoor security camera that screws into a light bulb socket, and has an LED light built in as well. This would go in the light socket near the septic pump, so we could monitor it without having to go up and down those insane stairs all the time! It used WiFi and an app to control and monitor it, and had a slot for a micro SD card. We have a couple of those handy!
They didn’t know when the plumbing guy would be back, so after I got the security camera, I went to the grocery store. It turned out to be really busy, and I found out why when I was asked if I wanted to collect extra points, or get 10% off.
I took the 10% off.
The plumbing guy was there by the time I got back. I showed him the brass part, and then pictures of my daughter holding the new T that couldn’t join the copper pipe.
After seeing more of the photos and how the copper pipe was installed, he was rather taken aback. That’s a pretty big no-no, and he was trying to figure out what was holding it in place. I told him, probably just friction. Why wasn’t it leaking? he wondered. I told him, that thing is NOT moving. It is completely water tight, and likely inserted with the use of a heat gun.
One thing was sure, though. I was not going to find a pipe cutter for a pipe that size. If we wanted to shorten it, we’d need to use a hacksaw.
He asked more questions about where the pipe with the copper piece led to, and I told him is was to the second sink.
Well, that gave us a solution.
He showed me a kit for plumbing a double sink. All the parts and pieces I would need, plus a few extras that wouldn’t be needed for our particular set up. He even took it out of the package and assembled it for me, how it would go under the sinks.
I talked to him about the trap, as I’d been looking at one that had a clean out opening. He agreed that would be the best. The only potential issue was the elbow part of it that joined the outflow pipe to the main drain. That part is sealed with adhesive. The U part of the trap screws onto that part and, in theory, we could remove the take off the new elbow and screw the U part onto the existing elbow, but with how old these parts are, the threads might not be the same. If they weren’t, we’d have to cut off the elbow and adhere the new one; there should be enough play in the pipe to handle losing that half inch or so.
There was a fitting that would be needed that I already had, with the parts and pieces of the new T we would no longer need, but I went ahead and bought another one. Having extra parts is always good!
This guy is such a help! It’s great to have staff that knows their stuff so well.
From there, it was home again. By this time, my poor daughter was really struggling. She may be the most able bodied of us all, but she does have other issues! Her PCOS really does a number on her joints, and she was losing her ability to use one wrist. I had suggested taking a break to have food, but since the dishes hadn’t been done, due to the sink being clogged, things to use to cook with were unavailable.
Plus, she just wanted to get it over with!
So I left her to it for a while, after bringing her what she would need to trim the length of pipe between the sinks to the right side, then started setting up the new camera before heading to the basement.
Long story short, I will probably be returning it. It simply will not connect to our WiFi.
*sigh*
It’s possible it might work somewhere not in the basement, but I bought it specifically so I could monitor the septic pump and area, so there’s no point in keeping it if I can’t use it there. There is nowhere else we would want to set up a camera that works by screwing into a light fixture.
Meanwhile, my daughter finally got to the point where we could test the sinks and see if anything was leaking.
Since we’ve moved here, we’ve replaced both sink drains, and installed the flexible water pipes with build in shut off valves, replacing copper pipes with no shut off valves. Now, we’ve replaced the rest of the pipes under the sinks, up to, but not including the trap.
At some point, my daughter used the sink plunger. Apparently, it did an amazing job in clearing crud out.
As we were cleaning up and putting things away – it was full dark by this time – my daughter realized she was hearing splashing noises.
That test we did to see if there were any leaks?
The water had overflowed the washing machine drain in the entry, and was splashing all over the floor under the washing machine.
We grabbed a bunch of towels to soak up the mess as best we could without actually moving both the washer and drier (there is a single step just barely in front of the washing machine, so it can’t be pulled out without moving the drier).
My daughter decided to try using drain cleaner and poured some down the washing machine drain pipe – we have an extra long, flexible funny just to access this drain without having to move the washing machine. She set a times for half an hour, before boiling water would be poured down, then took a well deserved break.
I used that time to set up the basins to wash as rinse as many dishes as I could fit in the dish tray. Once that was done, the dirty water could be tossed outside, since we can’t drain anything down the kitchen sink, still.
Meanwhile, my daughter was able to set a couple of baking trays in the oven for some of what I’d picked up at the grocery store for them, now that access to the oven was no longer blocked by a took kit and all the stuff that had been stored under the sink.
My daughter finally got to eat, after about 14-15 hours.
While all this was going on, I kept my brother up to date. We are at a loss as to why this main drain pipe is so clogged. We had it routered 2 or 3 years ago. The first time it had ever been cleared in almost 50 years. Why is it clogged again after such a short time? And this badly! We’ve been trying to be diligent in making sure nothing goes down the drain that shouldn’t, like grease and whatnot, and using the bacteria and enzyme pipe maintenance stuff.
We do have that commercial drain auger my husband bought for me. We just don’t have what we need to be able to open up the main line in the basement, then seal it up again properly.
My brother wondered if it was possible there was freezing happening. The pipe runs past the old basement window. That window, however, is currently filled in with 3″ thick Styrofoam insulation on the inside, and on the outside, it has what used to be a “roof” above the window, now leaning over it for protection from the elements. That entire corner, on the outside, is well sheltered.
My husband’s bedroom is right above this area, though, and he says he can hear the gurgling in the pipes, and thinks the clog is near that window. He may be partially right. However…
After the drain cleaner got to sit for half an hour, my daughter went to pour boiling water down. She poured straight from the kettle, which is 1.7L
I don’t think she got more than a litre in before it started to overflow the pipe!
Which means the clog is practically at the bottom of the drain pipe.
This drain pipe has been here since the house got indoor plumbing in the mid 70’s. While there is a washing machine in the entry now, when the new part of the house was added on, my dad had a sink installed in the entry, so that they could wash up from working in the barn or whatever, before going into the rest of the house. Basically, it was a mud room. My mother apparently hated have a sink there, so when they stopped having cattle, she put something over the sink and taps, covered it with a cloth, and put decorative stuff on it.
I found the original sink, and the counter it’s in, in one of the sheds.
When my husband and younger daughter came out several weeks ahead of my older daughter and I, my younger daughter helped my brother turn the entry into a laundry room, taking advantage of the existing plumbing, so that we wouldn’t have to go up and down those horrible stairs carrying laundry all the time.
Have a mentioned, my brother is awesome?
He has also been asking me to take pictures of various parts of the plumbing to send to him. I have no intention of asking, but I suspect he plans to come out here to see what he can do. He needs to retrieve his car, anyhow, now that it seems our truck really is safe to drive and is running quite well, in spite of a sensor telling us otherwise. My brother knows how to do this stuff, and has the tools – but they are mostly here, and scattered in different areas.
The alternative is to call a plumber to clear that drain again. Last I looked, it was a flat rate of $300 for a drain clearing plus 1 hour of time. Parts and more time extra, if it turns out to be a bigger problem. That was a few years ago, and I expect the prices have had to go up, with how much more expensive things have gotten since then. I’ve tried calling that plumber a few times since then, left messages and never got return calls. We used this company because it was the only one that had the big drain auger – they cleared the floor pipe to the septic tank, the first time we called them. This time, though, we have our own auger, so really, we could call any plumber.
But not today.
After all that fighting with the kitchen plumbing – which did turn out to be necessary, considering the condition of things under there – we still can’t use our kitchen sink.
At least the line from the bathroom to where it drops down to the septic tank is clear!
I have no idea what we’re going to do at this point. Thankfully, my older daughter was able to help with covering the cost of vehicle repairs and paying the septic guy, but that can get used up awfully fast! Just the stuff I got today is only because she was able to help out.
As for me, I am just tired. Mentally tired. So very tired of things breaking down. It’s been more than a year of one thing after another, and even when things get fixed – like the ejector, or that sensor on the truck – it’s still an issue.
This is really starting to drain everything out of me.
Not that it matters. All we can do is keep chugging along, making do with what we have.
For now, that means things like doing the dishes in basins and dumping the water outside, and having an emergency diverter attached to our septic pump to also dump things outside.
I think I need to make myself go to bed early, and try to get some rest. Thankfully, I’m not the one that had to crawl around under a sink, so I didn’t have any major exertions. Just walking around with my brother as he was checking the expeller and installing the diverter did me in, unexpectedly. It has been a long time, but at about 3am last night, it caught up with me and I got hit with Charlie Horses again. This time, both thighs, all the way around. All I did was try to roll over in bed, and that was it. Thankfully, my daughters were up and heard me calling for help, and my younger daughter was able to bring me some ibuprofen (acetaminophen doesn’t help for Charlie Horses) and stay with me. The attack – and that’s exactly what it felt like – ended as quickly as it started, which was the weirdest sensation. After all this time, going to bed now feels as risky and driving the truck with that sensor issue!
Today, I needed to drive my mother to her doctor’s appointment, but didn’t have to leave until morning.
That gave me a chance to check on our emergency diverter set up that my brother made outside the house, ensuring that things were still sitting where they needed to.
Aside from making sure the PVC pipe my brother found was snug against the house, this is the important part.
The orange tarp partially buried in snow is the end of the insulated tarp covering the septic tank that we did not have to move. It was pulled away from the house, instead. This end gets frozen harder to the ground.
The two lengths of pipe need to be kept straight and slow downwards. At the bottom left corner of the above photo, you can just see the section of chimney flu that is supporting it closer to the house. We used basically what we could find in the dark. They will do the job, as long as things stay where they are supposed to. The shoveled area in the snow will basically become a skating rink.
In the distance, you can see the large flexible hose that was meant to be used. The problem is, it doesn’t straighten out entirely. Ever snake-like turn is an area that water could potentially slow down and freeze. The pipe is about 6″ in diameter, but even that can eventually fill and freeze solid. So it looks like we won’t be able to use it.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Using my brother’s car (and making sure to give the engine time to warm up, first!), I headed out early enough to hit the post office.
Alas, the mail that I’m expecting that didn’t come in due to the postal strike, still has not come in. Nor has anything else. Not even junk mail. The strikers may have been ordered to return to work (as a Crown corporation, the Federal government has the authority to do that), but apparently, that doesn’t mean they are going to actually do their work.
Oh, something I learned about this strike. It turns out that Canada Post has two unions. One is for the regular postal workers we see delivering our mail and in the physical buildings, like in our little hamlet. The other is for the ones that work in the distribution centres and such. Those are the ones that went on strike. So, while regular postal workers still showed up for work, they couldn’t do anything, because the distribution centres were shut down. It was a rotating strike, so every week, a different distribution centre would be active again, allowing for some mail to trickle through. Of course, if it was going from one distribution centre to the next, that really didn’t make much difference.
But I digress.
From there, it was off to my mother’s town and, since I was so early, I swung by the hardware store. After talking to one of the staff, I picked up some reflective insulation. They sell this stuff in sizes large enough to wrap around hot water tanks, to narrow strips that would be wrapped around pipes. Which is exactly what I wanted. I also got a small roll of aluminum tape. I plan to wrap the outflow pipe where it butts up against the house, as that is the area most at risk of freezing. Then I plan to add some between the pipes and the supports. Where the log is, isn’t much of a concern, but the ceramic chimney flu and the brick can both chill the pipe and potentially cause an ice build up on the inside. Just a bit of insulation would prevent that.
From there, I made a stop at the gas station. I didn’t need gas yet, but I knew my mother would be getting her Meals on Wheels today. Though I had a large and late breakfast before I left, she had told me she didn’t like to be eating by herself, with someone watching her. So I picked up some of the potato wedges she likes so much, so that I could snack while she was eating, and she could have the rest with her supper, later on.
When I got to her place, though, she had just finished eating her main meal. So we had some tea while she ate her desert. 😊 We were able to have a bit of a visit before we had to leave, and I updated her a bit on what was going on, and that my brother had lent us their car rather than my SIL driving all the way out to drive both of us around, and that he’d installed the diverter. I’m not sure, but I think she was still living at the farm the last time (and first time) it was used.
We left early to go to her doctor’s appointment, and I’m glad we did. I ended up having to go back to her apartment to get her little folding foot stool. Even though the car is so much lower than the truck, she still needed the stool to be able to get in! That is a definite drop in mobility.
Once at the clinic, we had a long wait, as everyone was being called in late. Once in the examination room, we still had a bit of a wait. When the doctor finally came in, she started off asking if we could move to another room, but then she saw my mother and told us to stay put, she would go get her laptop. It turns out the clinic was having network problems with all the examination room computers, and that was why everything was behind.
So we tried to keep it short. The main thing was to get my mother rescheduled for the MRI we didn’t get to, due to dangerous road conditions. I confirmed that my mother’s file was up to date about her macular degeneration and treatment. The doctor has nothing to do with this, as my mother is being treated at the eye clinic in the city, but as the primary doctor, she is supposed to have all this information sent to her. Then we talked about my mother’s breathing issues. One of her neighbours has asthma and uses a puffer (inhaler), so my mother decided she should have one, too. So could she be tested for asthma?
The doctor just prescribed her a puffer. She explained that she could recommend her for testing, but that is done in the city, and my mother would be on a waiting list for probably a year. Using a puffer won’t hurt her. I don’t think my mother as asthma, but even if there’s just a placebo effect, it would be worth it.
After giving my mother a basic physical exam, the doctor adjusted one of her dosages, and that was it. We knew the doctor was behind because of the computer issues, so we didn’t talk about much else. Which is good, because my mother usually wastes time by asking personal questions, or bringing up issues that she has… opinions on, shall we say.
My mother wasn’t due for any bloodwork, but the doctor did want to see her again in 3 months, so I made that appointment before we headed out.
Since the doctor faxed the new and updated prescriptions directly to the pharmacy in my mother’s town, that was our first stop. I went in while my mother stayed in the car, as it was just too much for her to go in and out. My mother was due to have her bubble packs delivered on Friday, and has started her last week’s current pack, so when I got there, her new packs were already there and ready to go. So that got pulled and adjusted for the new dosage. Instead of delivering on Friday, they will deliver tomorrow. As for the last pack my mother just started, the pharmacist said for her to set it aside and use the new once when they arrive, and the current pack can be brought back and adjusted.
As for the inhaler, it would take an hour before it would be ready, so that will be delivered tomorrow, too. Having been given an inhaler to see if it would help with my own respiratory issues (which we’ve never found the cause of, and I’ve basically given up trying to find one), I was able to explain to my mother how they work and how to use one, etc. She’ll need reminding, of course, but I hope the staff that delivers her meds tomorrow will be able to explain it again.
That done, there was just a brief stop at the grocery store for me to run in and pick up a couple of things for my mother before I took her home. I didn’t stay too much longer after that. I’m glad the days are longer, and I did manage to get home while it was still light out.
In between all this, I was able to send the OBDII scan results on the truck to the garage and he was able to respond. It’s basically the oil pressure sensor again. The one that was recently replaced, and also recently cleaned out because it was triggering the alarm and “shut off engine now” warnings, because it thought the truck was out of oil. This time, it has so far just turned on the check engine light again (though I did clear the codes, so that should be off now), and it why the oil pressure gauge isn’t moving. He told me, even if he replaced the sensor again, it’ll keep happening, because of the weather we’ve been having. There’s really nothing he can do about it. I suppose I could pay him to take it apart and clean it again, but that’s about it.
So really, what I need to be doing is getting the engine warmed up and staying warm long enough to evaporate any moisture in the system and triggering the sensor. It’ll resolve itself as things warm up again, as there won’t be that build up of moisture anymore.
I don’t need to go anywhere tomorrow, and it’s supposed to be a bit warmer, so I’ll run the engine while I’m outside.
Which leads me to my phone call with my brother this evening.
I’d sent the pictures he took to the company that installed the ejector, and the response was the same. The pump isn’t pushing out the water fast enough to create the pressure needed. This frustrated my brother to know end, because he knows the pump is pushing fine. As for how long it takes to drain the tank, he told me that 5 minutes is about right, because our tank is about twice the size of most other tanks. It’s huge. I was so young when it was installed, I was probably not allowed to go anywhere near it at the time.
Plus, that ice wall on the sheet of metal roof the ejector expels the water onto shows just how far and how strong the flow of water is.
Or was.
I know I’ve described the ejector system before, but my brother sent me some info with a diagram. The image was a pdf and terrible pixelated, but I think I got a decent screen cap of it.
I don’t know if ours is from this company, but it’s the exact same design.
With our new ejector, it’s about 2′ above ground, so about 8′ is below ground. I think the original was more like 12′ based on how much more was above ground than the new one. The venturi pipe – the discharge pipe, in the diagram – should never stay full once the pump shuts off. Once installed, the venturi pipe can be (carefully!) removed and replaced, which is what we were supposed to do after using enough hot water to thaw the ice and free it.
One of the things my brother brought up again was electric heat tape. There are all kinds of heat tape, and my husband had sent me a link for one that he’d found on Amazon. As my brother voiced concerns that, if we did try to use heat tape to thaw the above ground portion of the 4″ stand pipe, it might melt the plastic, I sent him the link. It is safe for both metal and plastic pipes, and self regulating. It’s also available in a huge range of lengths. He estimated that a 12′ length would be enough to wrap around the pipe, up to the elbow coming out of the cap. It was affordable, so I ordered it. It’s estimated to arrive on the 17th, though, so we have other things to try.
One of the things my brother thinks is a contributing factor is the new location of the ejector. The old one was about 10-15 feet away, and had a big willow overhanging it. The willow may have protected it from the elements (even though the roots were probably why it was starting to lean backwards and eventually start leaking). Right now, the ejector may be in full sunlight, but it is completely exposed to the winds we get. With the temperatures we’ve had lately, that could be a contributing factor so a slow freeze happening, and to the slow flow I was seeing in the filter. As long as some water was getting through, it wasn’t freezing completely, though, and just building up. I have a theory. The night before I discovered no flow was happening at all anymore, the septic pump had not gone off at all. Normally, between the 4 of us, plus my older daughter working at night, there’s plenty of toilet flushing, dish washing and even at least one shower. That didn’t happen, and it may have allowed for the stand pipe to finally freeze solid, and the venturi (discharge) pipe along with it.
I had already been thinking that, in the spring, I would need to put some sort of fence around the new ejector. Being so much lower to the ground, the renters cows out traipse right over it, even with the metal sheet butted up against it to divert the flow of water. My brother was thinking we’d need to build some kind of semi-permanent shelter over or around it, to protect it from the element in winter. I say “semi-permanent” as we need to assume that, some day, it will need to have work done on it, and we’d need to be able to move it.
At one point, I thought of the catio. It has a clear roof and is wrapped in plastic, making it almost a mini greenhouse. It would fit over the ejector.
Then I remembered the metal sheet. It couldn’t fit on top of that, since it has a curl to it that ensures the water flows away, and not off the sides.
But, there was possibilities.
So, while we wait for the heat tape to arrive, we need to see if we can find something we can use to build a shelter over it for this winter. My brother thinks a couple of pallets set up as a V around it, then something on top, would do the trick. We have no pallets, but he’s sure he brought some. There might also be some scrap plywood we could find somewhere.
Which means, I have a task for tomorrow. Going through the barn and sheds to see what I can find that could be used to build a shelter over the ejector. Just something we can slap together for now, but strong and heavy enough to not be blown over and destroyed by the wind. Ideally, I’d find something clear for a “roof” and add a little passive solar heat.
Trudging around outside will also give me a chance to get the truck running and see how it does! We’re warming up over the next few days, including the overnight lows, which should help, too. The day after tomorrow, my daughter and I have our joint appointment. It would be good if we could use our own truck and return my brother’s car! They really do need two vehicles.
Well, we’ll see how it goes. There’s not much else we can do!
Meanwhile, our septic tank still hasn’t filled enough to trigger the pump, so we still don’t know if the diverter will actually work, yet. It should work just fine. It’s just that we’ve had so many things breaking down for so long, now, I’m getting pretty paranoid about it all!
Today is January 6 which, in our family, is our official last day of Christmas.
Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, also known as Three Kings Day. When the girls were little, they would have put their shoes out last night, filled with “hay” for the three kings’ camels, which would be replaced with a few treats and small toys for them to find in the morning.
The Bible doesn’t actually say there were three kings. Rather, it speaks of the Magi – wise men – from the East, who came bearing gifts for the newborn king of the Jews, and doesn’t say how many there were. It mentions three gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Matthew 2:9-11
And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
While nativity scenes often have the wise men at the stable with a newborn Jesus in the manger (the “inn” referred to in English translations would more accurately have been translated as “upper room”, and the stable would have been in the lower room of an extended family household, overcrowded by other family members come to Bethlehem for the census). By the time the magi arrived, Joseph and Mary would have been properly married and, as described in the verses above, living in their own house. By the time Herod realized the magi were not returning, enough time had passed that he ordered all males under 2 yrs old in Bethlehem slaughtered. I’ve read estimates, based on what is know of the region and likely population of Bethlehem at the time, that the number of children killed might have been about 17, though of course, no one really knows.
Joseph, Mary and Jesus were safely in Egypt by then. Egypt was also under Roman rule, so this was akin to moving to another province or state.
At this, we have a close to our Christmas season. I hope you and yours have had a blessed time, and that the new year will be one of peace and good health, and may all your needs be met.
Insanely awesome. Fantastic. Amazing. What would we do without him?
After a long drive home (I think it’s 6 hours, possibly 8), he stopped only to pick up a few things, then took their second car to our place. Once here, he went into the basement to look at things there (there wasn’t much to see, really) and change into his ski pants before grabbing his supplies and heading to the barn. Right about then, my SIL showed up. Unfortunately, she’s allergic to cats, so she can’t come into the house, and just stayed in the car the whole time, though we did get a chance to talk for a bit.
My brother looked around in the barn for a while, trying to find some copper pipe. The one corner I thought I’d seen some had a different type of pipe, but there was a length of pipe were I remembered, up in the rafters. My brother was able to reach it. It was only about 6′ long, though. We talked about finding a way to add a safety line, just in case, but its surface was too smooth.
He grabbed one of their super long extension cords that they now have stored in the barn and we headed out to the ejector with the copper pipe. Then, while I secured the end of the extension cord to a fence post, he ran the rest of the cord to the pump shack, which is a bit closer than the barn.
When he finished that, he headed to the car to get the heat gun, while I popped into the house. I’d found a piece of copper pipe in the basement that had a slightly wider part at the end, so it would hold a safety line. That way, if we accidentally dropped it, we could pull it up again.
Not that we ever needed it.
By the time I got there, my brother had opened up the ejector, taken a look, then put it all back again. When I got there, he popped the elbow off and removed the cap to show me what he found.
The first obvious problem was, the venture pipe was frozen right to the top. It should have been empty. When the pump turns off, any liquid in the venturi pipe drains to the bottom, which is about 10 or 12 feet down.
The 4″ pipe around it was also full, though not quite to the top. I stuck the copper pipe I had into the opening until I hit ice to see how far down it went, and it was about 8″ from the surface.
This absolutely should not have happened.
My brother put the pieces back and we headed to the house so install the diverter.
Before we did, we went to the corner of the house on the outside to find the opening. It was higher than I expected, for some reason. I still had the copper pipe I’d brought over with me (it made for a handy walking stick in the snow!), and my brother used it to punch a hole through the spray foam insulation.
From there, it was to the basement, to install the diverter.
Installing the diverter itself was an easy thing. First, he pushed the length of pipe to the outside through the hole.
He had drilled that hole himself, years ago, when they had to do some major work on the septic system, so my parents could still use their plumbing. This is the log part of the house, which is sitting on top of those joists – which turned out to be twice as thick as he expected! It took a lot to drill out that hole.
Once that end was through the wall, it was just a matter of removing the outflow pipe at the top of the pump and replacing it with the diverter.
A simple thing – yet I could not have done it.
I don’t have a heat gun.
After loosening the clamps on the outflow pipe, my brother had to use the heat gun to soften the plastic enough to pull it off. He still had to get pretty physical with it – I was rather alarmed to see the pump being moved around so much. I’d thought it was bolted down to the concrete! Turns out, it’s bolted down to some plywood. Which makes sense, as it would be easier to change pumps that way.
Once the pipe was free, however, black fluid started spilling out. All my brother could do was try to get as little as possible on the pump itself – and not get splashed himself! Me, I immediately went for the broom we keep nearby, to sweep water into the floor drain when there’s seepage in the spring. Once I got as much as I could swept away, my brother attached the diverter – making sure to remember to put the clamps on pipe, first! After softening the plastic with his heat gun a few times, he was able to get the pipe all the way on, then clamp it down.
The next thing to do was set something up to the pipe outside, to get any outflow well away from the house. The big flexible hose (it’s about 6″ in diameter) he’d brought for us before was stored in the barn, so it would have been quite frozen. He was concerned about using it, as it might crack from the cold. There were some old downspouts in the barn, though, so he went to look and see what he could find that could be used right away.
While he went to do that, I got the hose that I use to clear the floor drain and access pipe to give the floor where the fluid had spilled a bit of a wash, and swept that into the floor drain (the floor doesn’t slope towards the drain properly). While I was doing that, I heard some gurgling from the filter as it drained. This was to be expected, though, with the pipes being switched. I left it for the moment, though, then headed outside again to join my brother.
I got there just in time to see him carrying to lengths of pipe, and dragging the flexible hose behind him! He had it by one end, so that it would straighten a bit while being dragged.
I was impressed that he found two lengths of interlocking 4″ PVC pipe in the barn. I have no idea where he dug those out!
I grabbed the flexible hose from him so he could carry the pipes more easily.
The next while was spent setting up the PVC pipe over the diverter hose sticking out of the house. It was very important that the PVC pipe be right up against the house, and as high as possible, so nothing would flow backwards towards the house. The two pieces were interlocked, and we added whatever we could find to support its weight, so that it would be completely straight. The ground slopes downwards there, so that part was fine. The very end had to be raised off the ground, so that there would be no chance of fluid freezing and blocking the end.
As for the flexible hose, that got pulled out further, so that the black plastic could be warmed by the sun, tomorrow. Eventually, it will be added to the end of the PVC pipe, and the outflow will be sent well into the trees.
For now, he made sure to shovel a trench of sorts into the snow, to direct any outflow that might happen before then. Unfortunately, he dug it straight towards our little Liberty Apple tree! I mentioned that it was there, and he was saying “fertilizer!” I said that if it freezes, it’ll kill it.
I have to add, though; this is a Zone 4 tree, and we are Zone 3. With this cold snap we’re getting right now, it may well have been killed off. We won’t know until spring!
Anyhow. Once my brother saw where it was, he just dug the trench more to one side.
Once we were sure of how everything was set up, it was back to the basement. The filter was primed, and the pump turned back on.
From there, my brother headed out to shut off lights and close up doors. He also moved the car they are leaving for us over to where I had set up the extension cord for the block heater. I helped out, then went over to the gate to close it behind them.
Now, we wait.
We can use our plumbing as normal for now. It will take at least a few days before both sides of the septic tank fill and the pill switch triggers the pump. My brother was already fretting that it might not turn on at all, but I don’t see why it won’t. We’ll just have to keep an eye on things and listen for the pump.
We are all, understandably, paranoid about using our water right now. Is it safe to flush? Can we take a shower? Wash dishes in the sink?
The answer is yes…
… but… are we sure?
At least we know the diverter pipe is right here. The pipes outside are wide enough that they shouldn’t ice up, but it would be much, much easier to take care of that, should it happen.
As for the ejector…
Well, I’ll be heading to my mother’s in the late morning, so I should be able to call the company that installed the ejector and tell them what we found. Everyone was saying how I could pull the venturi pipe out and bring it inside so the venturi valve on the bottom can thaw, so obviously no one thought the whole thing could be frozen solid the way it is. Something is wrong, somewhere.
What will come of that, I have no idea.
It will help knowing that the pump is far newer than I thought it was, and that it was the highest end pump my brother could get.
For now, though, it looks like we’ll have our emergency diverter set up for the rest of the winter.
It is what it is. We’ll just have to deal with what we’ve got! I’m just incredibly thankful that we had that diverter, and that my brother was willing to come out here tonight, after such a long drive, to do what he could for us.
Have I mentioned, just how awesome my brother is?
I don’t think I could say it often enough. My brother is the best!
The Re-Farmer 