Author: Re-Farmer

Still no change, but lots of changes!

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

First, that extreme cold warning is still on, and has been extended into tomorrow.

You can see the times I took the above three screencaps, showing this morning’s temperatures. It’s coming up to 1pm as I write this, and we have not only finally warmed up to -20C/-4C, but it’s such a sunny day that the “windchill” is -15C/5F. The last screencap I took, at 9am, was just before I headed outside to feed the cats (I skipped the rest of my morning rounds), and the south facing part of the house was feeling much warmer. The wind direction just managed to be blocked by the trees to the south, which made a huge difference.

Unfortunately, we still have no septic, and the tank was not pumped yesterday, so we can’t use our plumbing. The septic truck broke down and never made it.

This morning, I tried calling one of the plumbers back – they are supposed to be available 24 hrs, according to their website. I left a message, but no one has called back.

So, we’re still using the honey pot in the bathroom. No showers and using as little water as possible to wash our hands. To do dishes, we’ve got basins on the dining room table, then we dump the dirty water outside when we’re done. We’ve even changed how we’re cooking, to try and dirty as few dishes as possible, and nothing that involves washing things, or dumping cooking water down the sink. I made a “use whatcha got” soup this morning out up leftovers – even the last bits of charcuteries meat and vegetable sticks we’d prepared extra of for New Year’s – for a hearty one pot meal.

—— pause for phone calls and messages and more calls and …. everything has changed! ——

Okay, I feel like I’m going through mental whiplash right now!

I will get to that in a moment.

Where was I?

Ah, yes. Doing dishes!

Basically, we’re being careful to have as little water going into the septic tank as possible. It can handle being at least a bit overfull – we’ve certainly gone more than a little over full just this past summer! – but we really want to avoid that.

I’m actually getting used to using the honeypot, because we can’t flush the toilet.

Yeesh.

Anyhow…

The plumber I left a message with got back to me while I was writing this. The first thing he let me know is that they are booked solid and cannot come out.

He also sounded rather upset for me. I’d mentioned the ejector was replaced about a month, month and a half ago. Ejectors are made to work in the winter. He used to install them himself. He has one himself that was installed in the 90’s, and it’s working fine. It shouldn’t be frozen. He suggested I call the company that installed it and get them to fix it. I told him I’d already talked to them, and he asked what they said when I told them it was frozen. I told the plumber that, at the time I called, we were thinking the problem was somewhere else at the time, and he was the one who suggested the ejector might be frozen. I didn’t confirm that until after. I also mentioned he’d asked me to call him back today, which I was planning to do. He told me that, when I did, to tell them they needed to come put and fix the ejector.

*sigh*

I did call the owner of the company back and basically told him what the plumber said. He was quite frustrated by that; apparently plumbers pretty regularly do stuff like that, when they don’t actually know what’s going on.

The problem is not the ejector.

The system we have works like this. The plumbing in the house all drains into one side of our septic tank. The solids sink to the bottom and, once it fills, the greywater drains into the other side of the tank. That side has a float with a pill switch in it. When it fills, the float triggers the pump inside the house. The pump pulls the greywater from the second half of the tank – this inflow pipe is where we have the filter installed, to catch any bits and pieces that might be in the water that could damage the pump – then pumps it out to the ejector. The outflow pipe runs most of the length of the basement and out the wall. The pipe, along with water pipes that supplies the heated water fountains for cattle, and a tap in the barn, runs about 300 or more feet to the barn, then turns away from the barn towards a low spot. From there, the venturi pipe creates enough pressure to draw the water up the pipe and out.

With ours, we’ve got a sheet of metal roofing to reduce erosion and divert the greywater towards a low area, further away from the barn.

That elbow at the top is part of the venturi pipe.

When the septic pump shuts off, any water in the venturi pipe drops down below the frost line and collects at the bottom of the 4″ pipe. The next time the septic pump turns on, the venturi pipe drains what’s at the bottom of the 4″ pipe first.

Here’s the problem.

There has to be enough pressure for this to happen, and that requires a certain gallons per minute rate of flow (he couldn’t remember exactly what that was). If there isn’t enough pressure, the venturi pipe can’t drain the bottom of the 4″ pipe completely. Then the pump shuts off, the water drains to the bottom, but now there’s more than there was before.

Eventually, the water level in the 4″ pipe gets above the frost line.

The septic pump, he told me, should take only about 2-3 minutes to drain the tank.

Ours takes about 5 minutes.

Except, recently, we’ve been having issues with flow.

First, the pump would empty the filter, but there wasn’t more water coming in from the tank. I would have to stop the pump, prime the filter, turn it on again, and it would work. The inflow, however, wasn’t as powerful as it had been, before.

The night before it stopped working entirely, the pump hadn’t gone off at all. The only reason it would was if we were using enough water for the second side of the tank to fill and the pill switch triggered the pump to turn on. That just didn’t happen.

So not only was the flow of water from the pump low, but there was no flow at all during one of the coldest nights we’ve had this year. Flowing water would have helped keep it from freezing entirely – at least for a while longer.

Which means that, ultimately, the problem is the pump and the flow of greywater.

Now, the pump *is* wearing out and needs to be replaced, but that may not be the problem. There may also be an air leak somewhere, affecting the vacuum. Which may have been what I was seeing, with a leak from the filter and the O ring not sealing. Or, there could be an air leak somewhere else.

Now, we could install the diverter and an emergency measure, but we still need to get the ejector thawed out, and we probably still need to replace the pump. I’ve been checking the filter regularly, and even turning the pump on for a few moments. It’s not draining, and the filter is not leaking, which – in theory, at least – means there is no longer an air leak.

Other issues could be that the pipe leading to the ejector is also getting coated with gunk on the inside and getting narrower. This is something we have been aware of and have been taking steps to try and improve. One of those was to use the Septo Bac every two days for two weeks, and we really did see a difference in how things flowed after that. Currently, we’re using Free Flow pipe maintenance twice a week; that is more to clear the pipes inside the house, but it would be beneficial for the tank and the pipe to the ejector, too.

—– Must pause for exciting news. —–

The septic guy just arrived! Our tank is being emptied right now!

We’ll be able to flush our toilet again!

I did get a peek into the tank when he popped the lid off. The level had not reached the pipe that the pill switch cable runs through yet, which was quite a relief.

That guy deserves one helluva tip.

Okay, where was I…

Right.

So there are a number of possible reasons why the ejector wasn’t able to drain properly, which resulted in the freeze.

I then got instructions on how to thaw out the ejector (that doesn’t involve ice fishing tents and heaters, as one plumber suggested trying).

I wasn’t able to pull the venturi pipe out because it’s frozen, but could rotate the cap. I couldn’t take the cap off, because of the elbow.

Well, that elbow has a screw, and it comes off.

We could take off the elbow and remove the cap.

We could then start pouring boiling water into the 4″ pipe, around the venturi pipe. However, he said to put some copper pipe down, first. The pipe itself will heat up and help thaw things out faster, but it would also help get water down more directly and further through the ice on the bottom.

Once it seems like enough ice was melted, someone could turn on the septic pump and, hopefully, it would drain the water at the bottom, and empty the septic tank.

That would take a long time, and it’s still colder than -20C/-4F out there.

—- pause for more calls —-

Oh, my goodness. More changes! This time, for tomorrow, too. I’ll get caught up to that, later.

With all this, I’ve been keeping my brother and his wife up to date, pretty constantly.

Given our concerns with the truck, another thing I had to deal with last night was how to get my mother to her medical appointment on Monday. Plus, I was supposed to come early enough to do her laundry for her. She called last night to tell me she was able to get her laundry done herself and that I didn’t need to come early. I told her a bit about what was going on (I didn’t want to overwhelm her!) and that I wasn’t sure if I could get her to her appointment. She tried calling my sister to drive her (which she didn’t want, as I’m the one who normally accompanies my mother, so I’m on top of what’s going on), but my sister starts her shift at work less than an hour after my mother’s appointment.

I passed that on to my brother as well. Today, I was supposed to run the engine a few times, so see if the problem continued, then decide Monday morning, if I’d be rescheduling my mother’s appointment. Possibly mine and my daughter’s on Wednesday, too.

I got a call from my SIL. They were going to be coming home on Sunday (today), and she offered to drive us. She would pick me up first, then we’d pick up my mother, drive her to her appointment, then she’d drive us both home again, then head home herself.

I was stunned by the offer – that’s a LOT of driving for her! Once I was sure this would not be too much of a problem for her, I gratefully accepted the offer.

Today, I’ve been messaging them the whole time, while they are on the way home. My SIL was driving, so my brother was able to respond to my messages.

When I told him about thawing the ejector and needing to look for a long enough copper pipe (I know I’ve seen some, somewhere!), he called me. I was just bundling up to go outside and check the barn.

Which is jam packed with their stuff.

I’m sure there is one long enough in one corner of the old bull’s stall, but it’s full of my brother’s gardening supplies now. I wasn’t sure if it was there, and I wasn’t sure if I could reach it! I’m pretty sure there are lengths of copper pipe in the rafters, too, but again, I’m not sure I could reach them. The centre aisle of the barn is full of tractors and snow blowers and rotary mowers, and I’m… well… short.

My brother called to tell me not to bother trying to thaw out the ejector. They would go home, then come here with both their cars. My SIL would follow later. He would take a look at the ejector, see what he could do, then she would drive him home.

They would leave one of their cars with us. It’s already parked outside, so they know it can handle the cold.

My truck should, too – it certainly did last winter! – but that’s another story….

The thing is, they were still about 3-4 hours away from home! Add in the time to come here, and he won’t get here until after dark!

But he felt he had no choice. No one is coming out to install the diverter, and no one was going to come out to thaw out the ejector. The one company would have, but they are so far away, it would be a lot more expensive, and they didn’t want to ding us with a huge bill. It’s not like they’d be coming out to fix an actual problem with the ejector they installed, that would be covered by any kind of warranty.

Plus, by leaving us with their car, my SIL won’t have to do all that driving.

Then my brother told me to sit down with a cup of tea and relax for a while. He knows me well enough to know how all this has been stressing me out.

Which is about when my husband called out, saying “are you expecting someone with a big truck?”

I’d opened the gate for the septic truck last night, and never closed it. He was able to drive right in!

He’d backed into the yard, so I threw on my parka and headed out. We went over to where I’d cleared things to make room for the truck and the hoses, and got the insulated tarp freed from the frozen ground. He then went to back the truck up the rest of the way. I confirmed how much we owed him, and told him it might be a couple of days before I can get the cash to him. He was fine with that. We’ve done this before, and he knows he can trust us.

With that, I went back inside and let my brother know the septic truck was here. It didn’t take him long at all to empty the truck, so when my brother said he wanted to call, I delayed it long enough for me to go back out, put the weights back down on the tarp, which the septic guy had put back, and put everything away.

Not before using the toilet and actually being able to flush it!!!

Ooooo… Very exciting! 😂🤣😂

While it was great that the tank was emptied, it does make thawing the ejector a bit more complicated. It will take probably a few days before both sides of the tank filles enough to trigger the pump again. Which means that, if we thaw the ejector, there’s not way to test it.

My brother thinks he should be able to use his heat gun and the copper pipe to thaw the ejector.

We’ll see how it works out, though. We won’t really know what we’re dealing with until we get that cap off and can actually see how high the ice it – or use the copper pipe to find how far it goes.

When they reach their place, he’ll grab a few tools, but we really only need a screwdriver to remove the single screw to get that elbow off.

Of course, things never turn out as expected, so who knows.

They don’t have a lot of tools at their place right now. They brought most of them here, to the farm. However, they’re scattered all over. They didn’t have time to be organized about it, but just jammed things wherever they could. My brother won’t be able to start organizing things until spring, at the earliest.

Well, we’ll do what we can with where we are at.

Meanwhile, they will be leaving a car here, and it will need to be plugged in. So I headed out to the garage to get a 100′ extension cord and set that up through the back door of the garage, so the car can be parked in the more sheltered yard.

While I was at it, I finally got to the truck and got the engine running. Then, after puttering with the extension cord, I set up my OBDII scanner.

The first thing I noticed was that the oil pressure gauge was still sitting at 0 and not moving. The check engine light was on again, too.

I did a full module scan. What I’m getting is “Engine Oil Pressure Sensor/Switch “A” High. Five times.

Looking into more detail, the scanner tells me this code frequency is “very common”. The recommended fix is to replace the engine oil pressure sensor.

Which got replaced not that long ago. Unless “switch A” is a different sensor.

I took screen captures of the results. When I’m somewhere with enough data signal to send images through text, I’ll send them to the garage.

Otherwise, the truck sounded just fine. In fact, now that the MAF sensor has been replaced, I do hear an improvement in how it starts, when using the remote car starter. Definitely smoother. I’d checked the oil yesterday, and it was fine, too.

Phew.

This post took a lot longer – and became a lot longer – than I expected!

As of right now, I’m basically just waiting for my brother to arrive and will accompany him to the ejector.

My brother is the best. So is his wife! I am so glad my mother transferred ownership of the property over to them. I don’t know what we’d do without them!

The Re-Farmer

Yeah, it just got worse

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

I just got a call from the septic guy.

Their truck broke down. He can’t come out today.

The first thing he asked when I answered was if we got our ejector working again. I told him no, it’s frozen solid. We’re going to have to install a diverter.

Which is when he had to tell me he wasn’t going to make it. When he hadn’t shown up for so long, I was afraid of that.

We might have to call another company, but this is the only one that has been willing to come out as needed, rather than waiting until there are several costumers needing to be done in the same area. It means paying more, but that’s better than having to wait weeks to get it done.

I just set the honey pot up in the bathroom. At this rate, we’re going to have to invest in a commode. The honey pot is a seat that fits on a 5 gallon pail. Not very comfortable, not very stable.

We actually do have a flushing portable toilet in the basement that we found while cleaning up, but the base is missing, so there’s nothing for it to empty into. It won’t fit over a 5 gallon pail, unfortunately.

I don’t get it. We’ve had more severe cold, for much longer periods, in the first few years we moved out here. We had our vehicles frozen for a month. But we never had problems like this, with our septic system.

And it’s not just us. The Cat Lady had the well pump at their cottage freeze and flood the basement, on Christmas Eve. My brother’s sump pump is frozen, and he’s monitoring it through his security camera to watch for possible overflow. During their drive, they saw semi’s broken down all over. Their own car ran well, thank God. The plumbers all mentioned having vehicle troubles from the cold, and they’ve been dealing with calls for service because of the cold. It may be brutal out there, but we’ve had worse!

*sigh*

What a mess.

The Re-Farmer

How many things can go wrong at once?

/ Re-Farmer / 14 Comments

Someone just shoot me know. Put me out of my misery.

No, I’m not serious. Just hyperbole, but really?

So we’ve got our septic issues. The pump never turned on during the night. I did check it, and found that m it wasn’t until late morning that I finally heard it turn on, and I immediately went down to check on it.

There was no flow through the filter. In fact, it was still full and nothing had drained out the bottom.

So I did the usual. Shut off the pump, pop the cap off the filter to fill it…

There was no seal.

I primed it, turned the pump back on…

There was no water flow. Nothing.

At this point, it was looking like we needed a new O ring. I’ve been messaging my brother through all this, and he suggested using Vaseline to get a seal. I found a tiny little jar of Vaseline in the bathroom and gave it a try.

Still no seal, still no flow.

I then spent I don’t know how long, calling hardware stores, looking for a 5″ O ring.

No one had.

Even the one in the town to the north of us, which I knew carried their own version of a septic pump filter, didn’t have one. They had a 6″ one.

They did recommend I call an auto place on the same street as them, as they carried all sorts of O rings.

The first question I was asked was, how thick. I never even thought of that, because all the places I called basically had one thickness. It was never a question. I gave the closest I could and he went looking.

They had one.

Yeah!

I started heading to the truck to head out.

As I was unplugging it, the first thing I notice is the front driver’s side tire is really low. So I fire up the compressor to pump it up.

That poor compressor. It was NOT liking the cold!

I got the tire pumped up, then got the truck started to warm up while I opened the gate. As I’m backing the truck out of the garage, I see something odd.

The oil pressure gauge is at 0, and is not moving. At all.

I stopped most of the way out of the garage, so I had room to set up the foot stool to check the oil.

It was fine.

I started the truck again, and the gauge still wasn’t moving. I left the engine to run while I went inside for a bit. I tried calling the garage, but it went to voice mail, so I tried sending a text, instead. Then I went back to the truck.

Now the check engine light was on.

*sigh*

I did not have time to fuss with this. I parked the truck, plugged it back in, locked the gate and headed inside.

Then I started calling plumbers.

Long story short, after getting through to one place and explaining the situation, they recommended someone in the town where the O ring was. I called there and left a message.

Then I went to the basement to try the pump again.

As before, I turned on the pump, but nothing was flowing through the filter. So I shut it off and opened it up.

It was sealed so well, I had to pry it off. It took a while, but the Vaseline made the difference.

I checked things and even switched out the filter baskets, even though that had been done recently, so the one in there was still pretty clean, closed it up and tried again.

Still no flow.

So the problem was not the filter, after all. And the pump seemed to be running pretty normally. So why wasn’t any water flowing?

I ended up calling the first plumber I got through to again, talked to the receptionist and explained what was going on, which she passed on.

At this point, I had so many calls and return calls to so many different places – including the company that installed our new ejector – that I’m starting to get them mixed up.

Long story short, it was suggested the ejector might be frozen. With suggestions and advice from different places, I headed out with a couple of jugs of hot water to see.

From how the ice and snow was on the diverter, clearly the expeller had been working all right until now. It obviously had quite a bit of pressure to create that ice wall so far from the expeller.

The cap is held in place with two screws, which I removed.

It was frozen solid. I couldn’t even rotate the cap.

I poured hot water over it and was eventually able to rotate the cap, but the venturi pipe would not move. I didn’t want to use too much force on it, or it would crack in the cold, but there was no way I could remove it to thaw it out, or to pour hot water into the pipe.

This is a serious problem. There is no way we can thaw this out, which means no septic for the winter.

I was keeping my brother updated through all this, though he’s currently out of province. When talking about the possibility of the ejector being frozen, he brought up something I completely forgot about.

With the problem we were having before, he’d brought over a massive hose for the diverter.

We could set up the diverter, if necessary. We would bypass the ejector system completely. A diverter pipe would be attached to the pump and run out hole in the wall, which is currently filled with spray foam insulation. The hose he’d brought over is now stored in the barn. We could set that up and the pipe from the basement would get drained into the maple grove for the winter.

With the ejector being frozen solid, that is now our final option.

More phone calls needed to be made.

One of those calls was to our septic guy. We need to get the tank emptied, since the pump can’t drain it. We can’t use our water. We still are, for small things, but no showers or doing dishes, and even flushing the toilet has to be avoided.

Thankfully, they will be able to come out today, so we won’t have to set up the honey pot. They’re a cash only business, though, and I don’t have any, but I can pay them later, which is something I’ve done with them before.

It will take a while for them to warm up the truck and get here, as this cold is causing all sorts of vehicle problems for everyone. As I write this, we are under extreme cold warnings, still. The temperature is at -21C/-6, and the wind chill is -29C/-20F

Once the tank is emptied, we’ll have a bit of a grace period and can use our water while waiting for a plumber to come in.

So far, I’ve had one tell me they’re booked solid for 2 weeks. I’ve left a message with the other, explaining what I needed and asking them to call back. I’ve also gotten through to the company that installed the ejector and asked if they could install the diverter for us. They are the furthest away and would be charging mileage, so he suggested I keep calling others. He then asked me to call him back on Sunday evening to update him. If I can’t find anyone, he’ll have someone come out. Otherwise, he wanted me to let him know if we found someone closer.

Which is where we stand right now. The septic guy hasn’t arrived yet, but I was able to get the insulated tarp over the tank lid freed of ice and snow and pulled back far enough to access the lid. Then covered it again, until he gets here.

As I write this, I realize it’s been at least an hour since the septic guy called me back. I hope he’s okay!

The extreme cold warning extends into the wee hours of tomorrow. We’re supposed to have a high of -19C/-2F tomorrow afternoon, and the days are supposed to keep warming up after that.

Just checking the weather now, and we’ve already dropped to -22C/-8F with the windchill now at -31C/-24F. Which could be worse; some places are getting wind chills of -40C/F

It’s past 3pm as I write this. I’d better go top of the kibble for the outside cats and – more importantly – give them more warm water. A lot of the kibble bowls are still really full when I head out. The ones in the kibble house may be sheltered, but there is no warmth. The bowl in the catio, wrapped in its plastic, gets emptied, but now the bowls under the nearby shrine. I’m rather surprised the plastic is making that much of a difference. The bowl in the isolation shelter gets emptied completely. So I try to leave more food at the bowls that get empties, so they don’t have to go into the cold to eat. I want them to stay warm and cozy as much as possible! Their winter fur is obviously helping, though, as I’ve been seeing them all over while outside.

What a day.

How many things can go wrong?

Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know!

The Re-Farmer

It’s brrrr out there!

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Our 10th day of Christmas is working out to be a cold one!

As I write this, we are back down to -22C/-8F, with the same wind chill of -33C/-27F that I was walking in, earlier today.

It could be worse. We could be Regina! They are at -31C/-24F, before wind chill!

We are currently under ongoing extreme cold warnings but, thankfully, we will be warming up over the next few days, so it’s really just tonight that’s expected to be severe like this.

I am glad that the truck it plugged in, though! 😁

In other things, I believe I’ve found the cause of our septic pump problem. Potentially. I went down to the basement randomly to check the pump, and found water pooled under the filter. The filter itself was pretty full, though. I couldn’t find the actual source of the leak, but I believe it is under where the pipe from the tank screws into the filter housing.

I ended up messaging my brother about it, as he installed the filter after we moved here – and the pump itself, the last time that was done. I’d told him we were looking into replacing the pump, and could only find one at a specific hardware store. Turns out, the nearest location is the one he’d bought this pump at, and he bought the most powerful pump he could get. Which is interesting, because when I showed a picture of our pump to one of the staff to show what I was looking for, he took a closer look at the label and commented that it wasn’t very powerful. I don’t know how long ago it was replaced – probably closer to 20 years ago. The newer pumps would have improved quite a bit since then, I’m guessing!

As for the filter, after I described what was happening, he told me this had happened before. A different filter had been installed at the time. My late father had noticed problems with the septic pump and my brother could not find the source. He ended up hiring and excavator to check the pipes to the tank, and they never found the problem there, either, though they did find some things that were loose that shouldn’t have been! That was fixed, at least. The plumber ended up having to leave without finding the problem, because he’d been here for so long. In the end, my brother took out the filter (it had been installed by another family member) and just put pipe back – and it worked fine again!

So when he got a new filter after we moved here, he went and got the best filter he could find. It’s a Jacuzzi pool filter, and pretty solid.

Well, I guess even the best stuff will wear out eventually!

This is not something that can be repaired, though. The entire filter would need to be replaced. I don’t know where my brother got it from, other than “in the city”. I don’t even know if they still make the same style of filter anymore. I’ve done a quick search and the closest I could find to what we have is attached to a pool pump – and it’s the pump that’s being sold in the image, not the filter. It may not be available anymore.

Replacing a filter, at least, would be more affordable than replacing a pump. Plus, it’s something we could do ourselves.

If we can find one, and I sure as heck am not going to be driving around looking, in this cold.

My daughter and I have joint medical appointments on Wednesday, which is supposed to be warmer. The hardware store that carries the septic pumps has a location just a couple of blocks from the medical clinic. I might want to pop over after our appointment to see what they have.

For now, I just want to stay home and hybernate.

The Re-Farmer

The 10th Day of Christmas

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Today, January 3, is the tenth day of Christmas. Rather than honoring a saint, today honours a name. The Most Holy Name of Jesus.

Jesus, of course, is the name we know in the English language. I grew up in a Polish household and, while spelled the same, we pronounced is YEH-sus (the J in Polish has the same sound as the English Y).

In Hebrew, 2000 years ago, it was Yeshua (Joshua), which means Yahweh Saves. It was actually a common name in the period. The Greek translation is Iesous. He was also Emmanuel, which means “God with Us”. There were other names and titles attributed to Him as well, but the most important one is the one He used for himself, in John 8:58. I Am. That is the name of God himself, from Exodus, and is an example of when Jesus directly identified Himself as being God incarnate, which ultimately got Him executed.

Which didn’t quite go the way the Pharisees planned, now, did it? 😁

What do you mean, it’s just noon?

/ Re-Farmer / 11 Comments

It feels like it should be 2 or 3 in the afternoon!

I tried going to be early last night, but it was an interrupted night. Which was a good thing, really. At one point, I heard the toilet flush, and the septic pump turned on soon after. I forced myself to stay awake, listening for it to turn off.

It didn’t.

Downstairs I went and checked the filter. There was no water in it. The pump was running dry. Thankfully, not for very long. I shut it off, primed the filter, then turned it on again. It took a few moments, but I was soon seeing water flowing in and it was running properly.

Running dry like that is not at all good for the pump. If I didn’t happen to be awake to hear it, it would have kept running all night, or until I woke to go to the bathroom or something. No one else in the house can hear it.

After the pump shut itself up, I popped the top on the filter and primed it again, even though it was still mostly full. Air must be getting into the system somewhere, but it’s not the filter cap, as that was sealed tight when I popped it open. Once it is full, it should stay full. There’s no sign of a leak under the filter that I can see, but once it’s primed, the level doesn’t drop. It’s when the pump turns on that it drains, but doesn’t refill completely once the water from the tank starts flowing. It seems that, after it runs properly a couple of times, the filter just doesn’t have enough water in it to create the vacuum needed anymore, and it runs dry. It’s almost as if the pump isn’t pulling water from the tank efficiently enough anymore, or there might be a partial block in the intake pipe, somewhere between the pump filter and the septic tank. The outflow seems to be working fine.

If anyone has ideas as to why that would be, I’d love to hear it!

Either way, that pump needs to be replaced before it burns out completely. For now, we’re going to have to constantly check on it and make sure that filter is full. Thank God we have that, because otherwise, we couldn’t see what is going on.

Working on the septic pump was at about 5-5:30 am, and my alarm was set for 7:30. I did manage a bit more sleep before I had to get up.

When heading out to do the morning rounds, I made sure to grab the truck keys, so I could start warming it up while switching out memory cards on the trail cams, and opening the gate ahead of time.

The new solar powered camera’s solar panel was frosted over, so I cleared that of. Checking the battery indicators, it showed that it was using the regular batteries, not the solar panel’s internal battery.

Then it gave a “low battery warning” and shut itself down.

Both sets of batteries were too frozen to power the camera!

I got it going enough to check it was up and running and recording before I moved on. The morning sun hits it directly, so it was already warming up and charging.

As I was finishing up my rounds, I made sure to double check the isolation shelter.

The patch, with its clear Gorilla tape over the crack, was doing its job. I still want to tape it on the inside, but it’ll be a while before it’s frost free enough to get it clean and dry. You can’t tell in the photo above, but the top of the isolation shelter was quite full of cats at the time!

The next image is a screen cap of the temperature taken several hours later. It had warmed up to -22C/-8F by then, but that windchill of -33C/-27F is the real killer.

I had been walking in that, just before taking that screenshot.

The isolation shelter is sheltered from most winds, though. The plastic around the bottom half would make a big difference, too. The cats love to just crowd into the top half. I’m glad I took out that insulated box and moved the bed into the middle. More cats can fit in there, now. I’m going to see if I can find a smaller cat bed I can shove into the corner near the heated water bowl, too. The insulation on the lounging shelf is being thoroughly taken advantage of, too.

My morning rounds done, I was soon on the road to drop the truck off at the garage. I had a 9am drop off time, rather than an appointment time, so when I dropped off the keys, I asked if he had an idea of how long it might me, just so I knew what I had time for while waiting. He figured it would be done by about 11.

So I had about 2 1/2 hours to kill.

I headed out to find somewhere for breakfast – and a public washroom (did I mention, these temperature fluctuations are murder on the bladder? 😄). I ended up going to a Subway. It’s been years since I’ve been there, but the only other place shared a bathroom in a pharmacy that wasn’t going to open for a while yet.

I wasn’t even sure the Subway was open, even though the sign was on. The lighting over the counter was very dark. I must have been their first customer of the day. They were still setting up. I ordered my favourite; a meatball sub. It was good, but the meatballs and sauce hadn’t had time to get hot, yet. That was okay. It was still warmer than the burger I had at Boston Pizza yesterday!

That done, I decided to pop into our regular pharmacy to cash in a couple of winning lottery tickets, then headed to the dollar store. There I found a bunch of breakaway cat collars. There was only one red one with reflective strips, but my daughters requested I not get red ones anymore. When they see red through the fur, their first reaction is alarm, because they think it’s a wound. So I got some colourful ones, instead. They are affordable there, and I was able to get six of them for about the price of, at best, two, in other stores. Most of the breakaway collars I see elsewhere actually cost more than what I paid for 6, and there’s really no difference in quality that I can see.

Of course, with that many collars, the woman at the counter was curious. When I told her they were for every yard cat that gets fixed, so we can tell them apart, she just lit up. It turns out she’s been taking care of a feral – and it’s now an indoor cat they’ve adopted! We talked for a while about the problems of stray cats, people dumping cats, and the insane cost of getting cats spayed and neutered. I showed her a picture of some of the yard cats inside the top of the isolation shelter and she told me, no way. I couldn’t do that. I’d have to keep them all! She had considered being a foster but knows herself well enough that she could never let any fosters go if she took them in, and joked about how, before she moved to where she is now, she was the “crazy cat lady.”

Which is basically what I am right now! 😄

Once I was finished there, I headed back towards the garage, stopping at the hardware store along the way. I picked up a block heater extension cord (we have a couple of older ones, but they’ve become damaged) and more of the Free Flow drain maintenance powder. For the next while, my daughters are using it twice a week, rather than once a week, to help keep that bottleneck in the pipe to the tank clear, as well as try and clear the main drain pipe from the bathroom to where it drops down and runs out of the house to the tank. It’s frustrating that we have a commercial pipe auger, and can’t even use it on this pipe. I did make good use of it in the pipes in the floor, at least. It’s a shame there isn’t another access to that pipe at the opposite end.

The plumbing in this place has been no end of problems since we’ve moved out here.

After getting what I needed at the hardware store, I headed to the garage. The truck was in one of the bays when I got there, so I just settled into one of the chairs in the office to wait. That was when I took the screen cap of what my weather app was showing, so I know the exact time I got there!

It wasn’t even windy out, but at those temperatures, even a light breeze results in quite the wind chill.

Our mechanic was constantly on the go, taking care of a customer ahead of me, taking care of deliveries coming in, and other vehicles to be worked on later in the day. In the middle of all this, my truck was driven out and another car immediately replaced it in the bay. It was just non-stop!

Then it came time to pay my bill.

Ouch.

$391 and change. The parts cost almost $250 and the labour was just under $100. Then there were the taxes, which added over $40 to the bill.

Well, it needed to be done.

We spoke for a while, and he told me everything went well with the fix. The check engine light is off, finally. He did let me know, though, that if moisture gets into that oil pressure sensor again, it will turn on again, first. It’s been fine since he cleaned it out, and the main thing will be for use to make sure the engine stays running long enough to evaporate the moisture. It’s the short trips with lots of stopping and starting, in these temperatures, that can cause the humidity to build up.

That done, I headed to the truck to start heading out. I noticed right away, he had the plug from the new block heater cord out and ready to be used!

It’s right in front of the deer screamer, but that shouldn’t be an issue while driving.

Then I went back in to get the container of Free Flow that I forgot in the office.

I was about to message my family when I saw a reminder from my husband. He’d wanted me to look into getting a battery warmer for the truck. I wasn’t sure how that would work out, since the battery is completely encased, but back in I went and asked.

Our mechanic looked up the part, and it will cost about $55. Plus labour. He did mention that it would take a bit longer because of the battery case, but he would expect labour to be about $30. Add in taxes, and we’re looking at about $100 to get a battery warmer installed. He’d need to order in the part.

We still need to get a tire sensor replaced, but that won’t be until next month. We could probably get both done then.

Finally, I was heading out. I was at a half tank and have lots of driving to do next week, so I stopped at a gas station to fill up.

The gas prices here were $1.499 It cost almost $70 to fill the tank, and that was after my CAA discount.

Ouch.

From there, I was finally heading home – and really appreciating the lack of a check engine light! – with only a quick stop at the post office. The mail I am expecting still isn’t in, but I did finally get a Christmas card! Thank you, CZ! It’s beautiful!

Then, it was finally home. With where the block heater’s plug came out, though, I found I did not need to use the new block heater cord that I bought. The truck is so long, I have to pull right up to the counter along the back of the garage, where I have a shop power bar set up. I was able to plug it right in there! The idea behind the block heater extension cord is that it controls the power level, so that the block heater isn’t constantly on, but the block heater cord, as you can see in the photo above, has its own controller, so that will be fine. I’ve left the new extension cord in the truck, so if we are ever out somewhere and are able to plug the truck in, we have it handy. Quite a few public parking lots have outlets available for people to plug in. They usually get turned on in the winter, off in the summer. While my husband and I were doing our running around yesterday, the spot I’d parked in that was in between all the places we needed to go had outlets available for people to plug in their block heaters. Now, I could actually make use of that!

With what happened with the septic pump last night, I’d messaged the family on the need to monitor it; especially if someone were taking a shower, as the pump goes off pretty much every time the shower is used. When I got home, my younger daughter was in the shower, so I headed for the basement as soon as I could. Both the well pump and the septic pump were running, and I was happy to see that the septic pump was running properly. I just waited until it was done, then popped the top off the filter and primed it again.

After that, I could finally relax and settle in to start writing this post, and was so surprised that it wasn’t even noon yet!

This has been the most interrupted post ever, though, so it’s been two hours since I started! 😄 It’s going to be time to head out and top up the kibble and water for the outside cats, soon.

One of those interruptions was a call from my mother. I’ll be taking her for her doctor’s appointment on Monday, and she wanted to talk to me about that. She’s been listening to her neighbours in her building again, and has decided she needs a puffer. She doesn’t have asthma, but I guess she could be tested for it.

By the time we got off the phone, we’d changed plans for me to come much earlier in the day to do her laundry. She can’t do it herself, and I haven’t been able to stay at her place long enough to do it for her. My sister has done it for her in the past, but she hasn’t visited lately. If she comes in on the weekend, maybe she can get it done, but otherwise, I’ll take care of it.

It’s going to make for a much longer day, that’s for sure!

Looking ahead in the weather forecast, though, I’m happy to see that all those nights they were predicting lows colder than -30C/-22F are pretty much gone, and on the days of my mother’s appointment, and my daughter’s follow up appointment, it’s supposed to get warmer. There’s even a day expected to reach a high of 0C/32F coming up!

Well, we’ll see what actually happens when the time comes, but I would be most happy for it to NOT drop to those extreme cold temperatures, even if we actually can plug in the truck now!

I really dislike the cold. Especially with so many things breaking down around the house!

If we didn’t have to get the work done on the truck, we could have gotten a new septic pump ordered in.

*sigh*

So many things tugging on the budget.

Ah, well. We do what we can.

The Re-Farmer

Not a wasted trip, plus isolation shelter repair

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

Today was the day my husband and I were able to head into the nearer city to trade in his phone. With his contract expired, returning the phone would save getting hit with the balance of the after contract bill, and he could trade up to a newer version.

That was the plan, anyhow.

Since trading in the phone meant it needed to be checked as being in good working condition, that had to be done in person. It would be a painful trip for him, but it’s been a long time since my husband has gone anywhere other than doctor’s appointments, so we were going to make the most of the trip. The store location is right next to the Walmart I normally go to if I’m not going to the larger city, plus there is a restaurant right near by.

We could *gasp* go on a date! 😄😄

So we headed out about mid morning, with a quick stop at the post office (the mail I’m expecting that’s been delayed by the strike still isn’t in – and it’s coming on on 2 months since it was sent!), and got there in decent time. Some sections of roads running East-West were in rougher shape, but better than I expected.

When we got there, I dropped my husband off at the cell phone store with his walker, then found a parking spot in between the three places we needed to go to. We had several choices on where to go for lunch, but decided to go to a Boston Pizza. My husband already knew what he’d be ordering, and asked if I could pick up some lactase for him, so I made a quick run into the Walmart to get that, first.

When I got back to the cell phone store, he was still in line. It was very busy. He’s been there long enough to hear and see transactions ahead of him and realized he might have a problem. They required photo ID.

He doesn’t have one.

He has other ID, but no photo ID. This goes back to when we tried to transfer his driver’s license the province we moved from, to this one, back in 2017. Even though his old driver’s license from this province was still on file, the laws changed because of identity theft. None of his ID match his birth certificate. It’s tradition in his family from the area he grew up in (he’s from the East coast) for everyone to have four names – three “first names” plus a surname – and use the second name as the given name. This only ever came up as a issue while he was in the military, and all they did was reverse his first two names on his paperwork. His old military passport has that version of his name in it.

What they told him he had to do when he tried to get his new driver’s license was to legally change his name to… his legal name… It was bizarre. Also, expensive and a weeks long process.

Unfortunately, it took so long to finally get to that conclusion, he was in insane amounts of pain by the time we left. We made a number of calls and ended up talking to the ombudsman, only to be told he just needed to have two bills/official documents with his full legal name on them, and they could issue him the ID. My husband, however, was not physically up to going back and going through all that hassle again. For the most part, however, when he does go out, all he needs to show is his health care card as ID, since it’s typically for medical appointments.

My thought was, if he could get his phone online in the first place, without having to prove his identify, there must be some way to do it in real life.

As we were waiting, I messaged my younger daughter to update her on things.

She sent me a photo.

I’d brought the truck up to the house for my husband, and shoveled the walkway up to the truck. After we left, she went out to shovel the rest of the walkways. In doing so, she startled some of the more feral cats out of the isolation shelter.

One of them jumped out in totally the wrong spot, so she went to take a look.

When we still had the large heated water bowl in there, and the cats kept knocking it down into the gap between the floor and the front that the cats can climb through, it knocked a screw loose right at the corner of the plastic window. I’d bought longer screws to secure it again, but hadn’t gotten around to actually doing it yet.

*sigh*

Well, a cat forced its way through the loose corner and snapped off a section of the plastic window.

The broken off piece could be put back and the corner patched up, though.

We were out of the neoprene washers we’d used for securing the plastic to the frame. I’d found them at the Canadian Tire, which was across the street, so I walked over to get some, along with some clear Gorilla tape, while my husband stayed in line. Depending on how long things went, I could meet him at the Boston Pizza.

I knew exactly where to go to find the washers, though, and the tape section was nearby, so it didn’t take long at all. The only down side is that the smaller washers I’d used before were not in stock. They had the next two sizes, and I went with the smaller, half inch washers.

After getting those and dropping them off in the truck, it took such a short time, I figured my husband might finally be at the counter, so I went back to the cell phone store, first. I checked inside, but was pretty sure my husband was already gone, though, as I saw fresh tracks in the snow on the sidewalk that looked like they could be from a walker or wheelchair.

Sure enough, he was already gone, so I ended up following his tire tracks all the way to the front door of the restaurant. He had pretty much just been seated when I got there!

He didn’t get a new phone.

Sure enough, his lack of photo ID meant he couldn’t trade in his old phone and couldn’t use it to trade up to a new one.

Which means, we’re going to get almost $700 added to our next cell phone bill.

*sigh*

On the plus side, I always pay what’s in the budget, not the actual amount for new charges, so we’d been building up a credit. My own phone had ended its contract and I got a much smaller end-of-term bill added, so that credit came in handy already. We’ll also be able to change our plans to reduce the monthly billed amount, which my husband will look into. We’ll still be paying the budgeted amount, though, so between the two, it won’t take long to pay it off, but still… what a pain!

For my husband, literally a pain.

Still, he was very happy to be out and about.

As for our meal…

We started out with a shared plate of onion rings for an appetizer, and those were good. It came with a lovely creamy dill sauce for dipping.

My husband ordered their nachos for his meal – they are an appetizer meant to be shared, so it was huge, as well as loaded with all sorts of toppings. He really liked it, and ended up having almost half of it boxed up for home.

I decided to try their maple bacon burger (no tomatoes, no onions). For the side, I chose a coleslaw.

I had the coleslaw first and it was the blandest coleslaw I’ve ever had in my life. I tasted zero vinegar. There was a dressing on it, but I couldn’t taste anything I could even give a name to. Oddly, though, I started feeling the heat of spices in the crevices of my tongue (this is something that is hereditary, and is the reason I can’t handle the heat of spices; the chemicals get into the crevices and even mild spices burn painfully). I couldn’t taste any spices, but that heat was there. It was so strange, and disappointing.

Then I had my burger.

I may not have had tomatoes or onions, but it was still loaded with toppings. Cheese, pickles, bacon, cheese, lettuce, the maple flavoured sauce and condiments, all on a brioche bun. It should have been packed with flavour.

It was bland. How all those ingredients could be bland, I don’t know, but they managed it. Perhaps it was because of the second issue I found.

It was barely even warm. The slice of cheese had melted over the burger, but was no longer melted. It’s like the burger had sat in the kitchen, and not under heat, long before it came to our table.

It still tasted okay. It certainly wasn’t a bad burger. Just not a very good burger.

As I’m writing this, I realized it never even occurred to me to say anything about it. I just ate it anyway.

In the end, the food, plus our Pepsi’s, totaled just over $68 before tip.

Ah, well. We had our date, and enjoyed each other’s company, and that’s why we were there in the first place!

As we were talking, it occurred to me that the last time we’ve been to a Boston Pizza, it was before we moved out of the city, and my husband was still working. There was a BP not far from the office he was in, and he and his co-workers would go there for lunch. Sometimes, the girls and I were able to meet him there during his lunch break. Which means, it’s been more than 10 years since we’ve been to a BP!

I don’t think we’ll go again for probably another 10 years, if at all. There are far better, and better priced, choices out there.

That done, my husband was actually up to going to the Walmart with me. He had something he wanted to pick up himself, so I told him where he could find what he was after, then headed to the pet section. I’m not sure when I’ll make it back to the feed store for 40 pound bags of cat food, so I wanted to get a few 9kg bags for the outside cats, just in case. Plus, I got more canned cat food for the inside cats. My daughter let me know she and her sister were out of oat milk, so I picked up a couple of cartons for them, plus a case of Kraft Dinner that was on sale.

As I went into the winding lane to the self checkouts, I caught up with my husband, at the next till. After talking to him for a bit, I grabbed a couple of snacks and drinks for the road, then paid for my cart load. Much to my surprise, I went through the exit just as my husband was done loading his stuff up into the basket under the seat of his walker!

Then the cashier handed him a Ziplock baggie with stuff in it. He was confused by this. It took a while to figure it out, but he’d made a donation to the Children’s Hospital, and I guess they have some sort of promo for donations of a certain amount. In the past, I’ve received a reusable bag, a lanyard and a pen at different times.

The baggie he got, though, had baby food items in it. A box of baby cereal and some sort of squeeze container. I’m not sure what else was in there. We had asked the cashier about a donation bin, and she said something about giving it to the food bank.

We’d gone through the first set of doors out when my husband stopped to put on his jacket, so popped back in and looked around some more for a donation bin. I didn’t find one, so I went to the customer service counter and asked the woman there. She stopped to think for a moment, told me they did have one, but she didn’t know where it was! She did take the baggie, though (it had “paid for” written on it already) and said she would take care of it, and talk to her manager. As she was talking to the back room, she passed another employee and I could hear her saying “we need to put a donation bin by the doors!”

So… that worked out, I guess! I have no idea what else we would have done with a baggie of baby food. There are no food banks in our area, and we don’t know anyone out here with babies to give it to. There’s a food bank in the town nearest us, though I don’t know where their donation bin is. The grocery store has one they keep near the exit, so I suppose we could eventually have left it there.

That done, we loaded up the truck and headed home. My husband had bricked his phone last night, expecting to be coming home with a different phone, so he didn’t have any of the apps we normally use. He was at least able to text my younger daughter to let her know we were on the way home.

Once at home, I backed up to the house to unload, but had to quickly dash ahead in to use the washroom – going in and out from warm buildings or a warm truck, into the cold, does terrible things to my bladder! My husband caned it in, leaving the walker for me to bring into the house later.

The first thing I noticed when I went into the washroom, though, was the quiet hum of a pump. Not the louder sound of the well pump, right under the bathroom. The septic pump, barely audible.

My daughters were upstairs, and no water was running to turn trigger the pump.

As soon as I could, I dashed into the basement to check.

Sure enough, I could see through the filter lid that the pump was running dry. It had been running for so long, not only was the motor hot, but the exit pipe was also hot!

I shut it off, then popped open the lid on the filter to prime it. The lid came right off; it wasn’t sealed for some reason!

I think we need to replace the O ring!

After priming it, I turned the pump back on and watched carefully. Sure enough, water started flowing through. So the tank did fill and triggered the float, but nothing was flowing through. It could be that something had blocked the pipe, or it could be because the filter lid was too loose and there wasn’t enough of a vacuum. This has happened before, though, and I had to pry the filter lid off, because the O ring was sealed so well, so I can’t say for sure.

Thankfully, once water started flowing through, that actually cooled down the pipe, and even the pump itself. I still stayed and watched until it shut itself off.

Part of the problem is, there are few places in the house were the pumps can be heard. Especially the septic pump, which runs quieter than the well pump. So unless someone is in my bedroom/office, in the bathroom, or standing by the basement door, they can’t hear the pump – and even if they were, they wouldn’t necessarily be there long enough to know if there’s a problem.

I’ve been looking at indoor security cameras to replace the critter cam in the sunroom. I want something that allows us to keep the live feed going continuously, and save files to a micro disc, without having to pay for a subscription. The ones I have been looking at can also be directionally controlled through an app.

We might need to get one for the basement, so we can check on the pump from anywhere. Depending on where we set it up, we could also see if anything is backing up through the floor drain again, too.

We need to replace the pump itself, but a camera is something we can afford in the short term. I was thinking of getting one in the spring, but we might just pick one up sooner, rather than later!

That taken care of, I unloaded the back of the truck, then fed the outside cats so I could park it. Which is when I remembered my husband’s walker was still in the back! 😄 So were the things I picked up at Canadian Tire, and his box of nachos.

I was just a big distracted after dealing with the pump!

Once I got everything to the house, I got the drill and driver to patch up the isolation shelter.

I don’t know why Instagram cut the pictures. I specifically set it to show full size when I uploaded them!

The first photo is the one my daughter sent me. The broken off corner was set on top of the entry shelter box. When I was going in and out of the house to unload the truck at point point, I was seeing Stinky watching me, through the hold in the corner!

Much to my surprise, several of the younglings actually stayed inside the shelter while I worked on it. The broken off piece has frost on it, and I held it in front of the heat bulb to get it melting, wiped it down, melted it some more, until I got it clean and dry.

The cats were quite confused by my actions!

I got the corner piece back in place and partially secured with new, longer screws. Then I covered the broken edges with clear Gorilla tape on the outside. I mean to do the inside, too, but that’s frost covered, so it will wait until that melts away and it can be cleaned and dried.

The very corner screw, however, wouldn’t secure. It stripped the pilot hole, and would need a wider screw. Since I was adding more screws to secure the plastic window in strategic places anyhow, I added a couple more on either side of the corner screw. The neoprene washers are too big for the screws, but as long as they are tight enough, they’ll keep the moisture out of the screw holes.

In the summer, what we might end up doing is cutting away the half of the window with the broken corner and putting in a new section over that side. My brother gave us a bunch of scrap wood and other materials, including a section of clear plastic (most likely Lexan) that might be big enough to cover the opening.

This patch will have to do for the rest of the winter, though.

By the time I was done, my daughter had put away the shopping and was helping my husband set his phone up again. He’s got it done enough that it can be used again, and he can log into his various accounts and apps.

The whole purpose of our trip to the nearer city was for him to trade in his phone, and that didn’t happen – but it wasn’t a wasted trip at all. My husband got to get out and about, which he hasn’t done in such a very long time. It was painful, but he was glad to have done it, and we even got a date out of it.

So all is good!

Tomorrow morning, though, I’m out again, this time to drop the truck off at the garage at 9am. I don’t know how long it’ll take them to replace the sensor and the block heater cord, or even if they’ll get to it right away, so I have no idea how long I’ll be in town. I don’t have any errands to run, though I will make a stop at the hardware store. In the summer, I would walk to the beach or something and enjoy the outdoors. There are no indoor places to just hang out in the winter, and the high for tomorrow is expected to be -20C/-4F. There are just stores, restaurants and gas stations, and I don’t like to linger if I’m not going to buy anything.

Ah, well. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to hang out in town during the winter.

After that, I should be able to stay home for the weekend and just enjoy not going anywhere! 😄

The Re-Farmer