I’ve mentioned before that we are still having to run a hose from our washing machine, out the window of our storm door, to drain into the yard. Even though we had the pipe cleared by a plumber, when we set the washing machine back up to drain into the plumbing, it overflowed and started flooding our entry again.
The plumber had made an easier access to the pipe, so now we can clean it out ourselves. Unfortunately, even though we’ve done it a few times, there seems to be one spot where things build up again very quickly. The kitchen sink still drains fine, but we can hear the water in the drain for the washing machine, and it doesn’t take long before it sounds like water is backing up into that pipe again.
In talking to the plumber, he suggested we might have to cut out and replace a section of that pipe, as we can tell it’s always clogging up in the same spot. The pipe runs under my husband’s bedroom, and he can even hear the difference in the sound of the water flowing through.
Replacing a section of pipe would be far from ideal, as it would be difficult to access.
In the past, we had a similar situation and were able to rig up a toilet brush to part of a chimney sweep to clear out a drain pipe to a septic tank. That worked really well but 1) the pipe was larger than what we’re dealing with here and 2) it was easy to get at.
I figured there had to be something similar out there, so after some searching, I found this. (not an affiliate link). A flexible hose cleaning tool – and it arrived today.
I got the longest one I could find in the size needed.
When I opened the package, is seems smaller than I expected. It’s the size needed for the pipe, but my brain keeps saying, the larger bristle end is too small. What really got me, though, was how soft the bristles are. I don’t know that it’s stiff enough to scrub the insides of the pipe.
Well, we’ll find out, later today. I don’t want to open up the pipe until we’re done using the kitchen sink for a while, so we don’t get splashed. I’ll use the plumber’s snake again, first, then see what this brush can do to clean the insides of the pipe.
It will be really good to finally be able to use the actual drain for the washing machine, instead of running the house out the window. My daughters had laundry day yesterday, but some things needed extra time in the drier. By the time my younger daughter was able to switch loads, the hose out the door had frozen in a low spot and clogged. My daughter had used hot water to thaw it out, but by 2 in the morning, she finally gave up and went to bed, after setting the hose out on the sidewalk, in hopes it would thaw out in the sun, today.
Which it did. Once I was sure water could flow through the sump pump hose we’re using as a drainage hose, I ran a tub clean cycle, which uses hot water, to get the loose ice out. Once the tub clean cycle was done, I could finally bring the hose in and close the inner door. Thankfully, it wasn’t too bitterly cold out last night, and today is much warmer, though still below freezing.
I was able to finally get something else done that I’ve been meaning to for a while. I was able to clean the smoke damage off the mementos I got for my mother, from our little local church that was torched some time ago. The church was too damaged to repair, so there was a service to officially close the church, and people were welcome to take what mementos they wanted. The rest will be properly burned or buried.
I’m still hoping to be able to get a bench and or a pew home, but we have nowhere to safely store anything that big until we can clean the smoke damage off.
Anyhow.
I had selected a couple of small items for my mother and, today, I finally was able to clean them.
The church had the fourteen Stations of the Cross along both sides, and the Twelfth Station in the photo was taken from the wall near where our family pew used to be. The back of it can be seen in the second photo. It was almost completely black with soot from smoke, but did not have any actual fire damage. I used baking soda and water to clean it, gently scrubbing with a nail brush and an old tooth brush. I will later be using mineral oil on the wood, once I’m sure it’s good and dry. It looks dry in the photo, but there’s a possibility water got under the ceramic part while soot was being scrubbed off the sides.
The votive holder is one of many from a stand where people could light a candle and say a prayer. The ones that weren’t taken as mementos were going to be taken to the still active Catholic church in town, where they have a similar, larger set up. The holder had quite a bit of wax in and on it, though very little soot. I set it on parchment paper in the toaster oven on the warm setting until the wax was fully melted, poured off what pooled on the bottom into the garbage, then used paper towel to wipe up the rest, while it was still hot.
I still have other items that need to be cleaned of smoke damage, but as these are for my mother, they had priority!
I was going to be taking my mother to the city on Thursday (today is Monday) for her appointment at the eye clinic, but she called me today about it. She was really unsure about going, but couldn’t make a decision either way. The appointment is not for treatment, but to monitor her macular degeneration, and we already postponed it once. She says she’s not noticing any change in her vision. I ended up calling the clinic and talking to someone about her situation. The receptionist passed it on to the doctor and his assistant, and the assistant called me back later. After explaining the situation some more, she went ahead and cancelled the appointment, making sure to tell me that, if my mother notices any changes, to make another appointment.
I will still be going to my mother’s on Thursday, though. I will probably do some grocery shopping for her, but she also needs help filling out the paperwork for her Life Line set up. I also have some stuff from my brother to drop off – he’d mistakenly left them with me instead of our mother – so I can bring those along with these mementos.
What I haven’t done today was work on the basement some more. I was hoping to set up a temporary table to hold seed starts, but what I was thinking to use is just too big. I might simply use the work station, instead. I didn’t want to set up on top of the new self healing cutting mat, but I’ll figure something out.
For now, I think I’m going to go treat the wood on that cross with a first coat of mineral oil. I expect to do that a few times before it’s in decent shape again.
Okay, a bit of a refresher on this one, regarding our septic pump emergency diverter set up, outside.
The end of the diverter pipe sticks through a hole in the wall by about a foot; maybe a bit more. I never really looked closely before it was covered. The hole itself is less than foot above the ground.
My brother found a couple of 10′ lengths of white, 4″ PVC pipe that fit together. This was set over the diverter pipe to direct the flow away from the house. We set a brick under the 4″, to raise it and hold it up against the diverter, with the edge right up against the wall of the house. We used what we could find to put under the 20′ of pipe so that it wouldn’t bow along its length, while maintaining a downward slope. The very end of the pipe was on a brick to keep it off the ground, so there would be no chance of it freezing closed. Later, I wrapped insulating material around the pipe at the house end, and where it had contact with supports, to further protect the pipe and ensure nothing could freeze in there.
This set up had the effluent drain away from the house, but not that far. With the lay of the land, the water would drain over the frozen ground, towards the corner of the old kitchen garden and pool there.
In the fall, my brother had brought a 6″ black flexible pipe that’s about 50′ long. This was to use on the diverter to direct the flow into the trees, while the ejector was being replaced. We ended up never needing to use it, and I eventually took it to the barn for storage, along with the rest of my brother’s stuff.
When the ejector froze and we set up the rigid PVC pipe for the emergency diverter, I brought out the flexible pipe again, just in case. There was too much snow on the ground to do anything with it, yet. Eventually, I dug a trench in the snow, brought a wide board that had been found and was being stored in the garage to use as a supportive ramp, and set the flexible pipe (I supposed I should be calling it a hose, not a pipe, but whatever…) over more than a foot of the rigid pipe’s end. This is what the end result was like.
I pushed the insulating material back quite a bit to fit the hose on. The ramp is on the brick that had been supporting the end of the pipe, so the top of the ramp is just a bit past the end of the rigid pipe. I’d brought another brick along, expecting to need it to keep the board from bowing, but ended up not needing it. Instead, I set it hear the hose/pipe connection, on the side where it looked most likely to be pushed off the ramp by a cat or racoon or something.
In the second picture, you can see the rest of the hose snaking its way down the snow trench. The effluent could now drain well away from the house.
There were a couple of problems with this.
The main one is that, while it slopes away from the house AT the house, the ground is not level.
At all.
What I would regularly do during my morning rounds was check on the pipe, to make sure it was still tight against the house. I would then check along the hose a few feet with my foot until I could feel the weight of water inside. From just above there, I would use my foot and drag it along, under the hose, to slowly work the fluid to the end. I could sometimes hear ice breaking up and moving along inside, too, and much of the ice would come out the end, too. I usually did this at least twice, sometimes three times. Some mornings, however, were too cold. The warmth of water flowing through the hose, as well as the black plastic heating up in the sun, melted the snow in the trench down to the ground. When it got cold enough, the hose would be frozen to the ground. I didn’t want to mess with it and risk cracking the plastic, so on those days, I’d just leave it. With the hose being 6″ in diameter, I really didn’t need to drain it at all, as there was no way the ice could build up enough in there to block it completely.
Using my foot to drain the hose, however, allowed me to identify two lower spots where more water, slush and ice would collect. After hunting around, I ended up bringing over the covers for a couple of crane crates my brother gave me. The crates have been converted to wall shelves in the garage, and I meant to attach the lids with hinges in such a way that they would swing down and could be used as surfaces. Instead, I have put them under the hose over these low spots. They will get too damaged to use as I intended by the time we’re done using this set up, but this is needed more.
The other issue I realized is a combination of two problems.
One, by the end of the hose, the ground starts to slop upwards again. Enough that some of the effluent would actually flow back down the outside of the hose, rather than all of it flowing away.
Two, the very end of the hose has a curl to it, and it was curling upwards. Water could still flow through, but once the pump stopped, the hose could never fully drain, so there was always a layer of water in the bottom of the hose, even on the more level ground.
There were two possible solutions to this. The easiest was to just rotate the entire hose, so that the end would curl downwards instead of upwards. So I tried that.
I call attention back to that second picture. You see how the hose snakes slightly from side to side?
Well, those bends in the hose stay, even after being rotated. So instead of side to side wiggles, there were up and down humps.
I rotated it back and left it. The side to side wiggles are at least flat on the ground!
The other possible solution was to use something to straighten that curled end. The easiest thing would be to put something long inside, heavy enough to hold the curl down. That was not really an option, though, as anything inside the hose would obstruct the flow of effluent and create a surface for it to freeze around, among other things.
The other way to do it would be to weight it down on the outside. Being a round hose, though, it’s not like I could just put something on top of it; it would just fall off. I needed something that was large enough and shaped so it could fit around the hose, heavy enough to hold it in place and stable enough to not be easily knocked over.
I had yet to find anything that fit the bill, but I wasn’t too concerned about it. Water was flowing through well, and there was no change that enough water would be stuck in the pipe as to freeze and block it completely.
What I hadn’t thought to do was tell my brother these details. It seemed inconsequential.
Yesterday, before we tested the new bypass valve, my brother had gone out to make sure the pipe was still tight against the house. When he came back, he told me he added more support to it, so that the diverter pipe was against the bottom of the larger pipe, not the top.
He then mentioned that the end of the hose was curled upwards. I told him, yes, I had noticed it was.
Then he told me he “fixed” it by carefully rotating the entire pipe.
I told him I’d tried that, but it left me with raised sections of hose where it bends. He concurred with that and said that it was warm enough for that not to be a problem.
Which lead me to believe that the “humps” created by the side to side wiggles in the hose had flattened themselves out. I was surprised by this, because it was still pretty chilly out there, but that black plastic does still heat up in the sun quite a bit. Especially when it’s protected from the wind, like the hose is protected by the walls of the snow trench it runs through.
Then I forgot about it, as we got busy testing the new bypass valve.
Until this morning.
I’d heard the septic pump go off during the night, so when I was doing my morning rounds, I knew it would be a while before it went off again. Still, I made sure to check at various key points, and everything seemed fine.
There was a “hump” in the hose near the end, though.
When I went to try and drag my foot under the hose to see if it needed to be drained (with the temperatures last night, I expected anything in there to be frozen), it wouldn’t move…
… and not because it was frozen to the ground.
It was heavy with ice inside.
I checked around and, as far as I could tell, the last time the pump drained the tank, it did flow out the end, like it is supposed to.
Sort of.
Once the pump stopped, any water that couldn’t make it over that hump just pooled in the hose and froze during the night.
The question was, how full was it? Was that hump high enough that the backed up water filled it completely? I honestly couldn’t tell.
I did have to flatten that hump, though.
After doing some digging around, I eventually found something in the side of the garage we store our lawn mowers and snow blowers in. It was a piece of metal that used to be part of a fluorescent light fixture. It was about 3′ long and shaped to fit around fluorescent bulbs, in angles, not a curve.
It was the best I could find.
I took it over to the end of the hose and, after flattening it a bit, could set it over the humped part. I’d brought a brick over to weight it down, and there was another brick my brother had brought over to set under and support the hose, but the two together were not heavy enough to flatten the hump, so I went and got a flattish rock from by the house that we’ve been using to weigh things down, as needed. While I had flattened the metal piece enough to fit over the hose, it still took some doing to get the weights on it and stay there.
I knew the set up would fall off easily, but as long as it held while water was flowing through, that would be fine.
I then had to wait inside until I heard the pump go off again.
When I did hear it go off, I went to my window to check but, while I can see the far end of the hose, I can’t see if anything is coming out of it. So I opened my window to listen.
I heard splashing sounds, near the house.
Dang.
Of course, the pump shut itself off before I could even get my boots on, but I was soon outside to see what I could see.
Thankfully, the splashing was NOT coming from the pipe where it butts up against the house.
It WAS coming from where I thought was most likely. Where the hose goes over the pipe. Effluent had backed up the ramp until it was coming out the space between the 4″ pipe and the inside of the 6″ hose.
I checked the other end, and it was completely dry. Nothing made it out the other end.
The first thing to do was to get as much water out of the hose as I could. For that, I lifted the hose at the end of the ramp and work my way up, so it could flow out where the water had been draining while the pipe was running. I had to do that a few times before I was satisfied I’d got most of it out.
I then had to do the same thing, in the other direction. No dragging my foot under the hose this time, either. I had to physically lift the hose with my hands and slowly work my way to the end.
Of course, the weights on the hump fell off long before I reached it.
On the plus side, water started flowing out the end well before I reached it, too, which means it wasn’t completely frozen closed.
All the way along the hose, I could feel ice and slush moving around. If that hump had been just a touch lower, water would have been able to get through to the end, I’m sure.
Once I got to the end, I made sure to lift it enough to get a good amount of ice out.
Then I went back and did it again.
It could probably have used a third time, but lifting that slush filled hose while bent over and trying to walk was NOT good for my back. I wasn’t going to risk injuring myself, when I could tell that water would flow through.
The first photo above shows where the water was coming out from the top of the black hose, then draining down towards the corner of the old kitchen garden. You can even see that the water is still flowing over the frozen ground.
I did make a slight attempt to rotate the hose back again, but it’s still too full of slush to bother. Instead, I put the metal piece back and weighed it down again. I have up trying to put the bricks right on top, as they just kept falling off again, so I set them on the sides. The rock was staying on top well enough, at least. The main thing is that the hump is flattened.
You can also see the larger ice chunks I got out of the hose.
Now that it’s weighted down, when the pump turns on again, the relatively warm water should actually help melt and clear away some of the slush inside the hose, opening it up more. It should not back up the ramp to the top of the hose again.
It’ll take a few showers, much washing of dishes and flushing of toilets before the pump is triggered again, though!
Meanwhile, the day continues to warm up, which will also help. Right now, we are up to -9C/16F, but the “real feel” is -3C/27F. Our high of the day is supposed to be -6C/21F. The 10 day forecast shows we’ll have a couple more days – not consecutive – with highs below freezing, then we’ll be going above freezing and staying there. Looking at the monthly forecast, we are expecting to get as warm as 8C/46F before the end of the month. There are supposed to be a couple daytime highs just dipping below freezing in the first couple of days of April, and then that’s it. Daytime highs are supposed to remain above freezing from then on. We’re even seeing highs of 17C/63F predicted for the middle of April, but of course, that far ahead, the forecast will change many times.
I’ve updated my brother about the situation with the hose outside, of course. As we were talking, he told me he’d been thinking about that ejector situation. His thought is that, with how saturated the ground became, because of the leaking old ejector, the ground froze far deeper than normal. Which is certainly possible in an area what was freshly excavated. There’s no way to know until it thaws, though. For that to happen, though, our overnight lows need to stay consistently above freezing for quite a while, for it to thaw out that far down. Unless we get an unusually warm spring, we’re looking at the end of May or into June.
Today, he worked on our septic plumbing again. This after already spending a couple of hours outside, doing things among their stored items, and being sick, too!
A few days ago, they’d gone out for dinner and he’d ordered a “Canadian burger”. Yeah, one of those virtue signaling things so many places have been doing, suddenly pretending to be patriotic because our government and media have told us to hate the US right now. Just a few years ago, the same people were calling Canadians who flew the flag and displayed patriotism racists and Nazis and white supremacists, just like Americans – or at least the Americans they tell use to hate. People were arrested for flying Canadian flags, banned from businesses, their property vandalized and even physically assaulted. Now, suddenly “American style patriotism” is no longer bad. Funny how easily people can spin on a dime and not see their own double standards.
Ironically, the restaurant was a US franchise.
Anyhow, the burger made him incredibly ill. He thinks the beef wasn’t fully cooked and he was hit with e. coli. He said he was still operating at only about 80%.
His 80% is more than a lot of people’s 100%, though! The guy is amazing. I don’t know how he does it!
I had other things to get done before I went back to working on the basement, so I didn’t get to help or watch while he figured out how to install the new bypass. I cleared another section in the new basement enough to mop it, then joined him after I set the blower up to dry the concrete floor. By that, he was pretty much done and ready to start testing. He was quite happy that it worked out much easier than he expected.
The pipe to the ejector now has the T insert in it. Under normal circumstances, effluent would just go straight through this pipe and to the ejector, out by the barn.
In the next photo, you can see the ball valve in the emergency diverter pipe, in the open position.
I was really curious how he would work with that diverter pipe. It had a very strong curve to it, in the wrong direction! What he ended up doing was first, rotating it so that the curve was in the other direction. Then he used his heat gun on a substantial section of it, until he could straighten it out enough that it could be attached to the T. He had to stand there and hold it straight until the pipe cooled enough to hold its new shape.
Of course, he had to cut sections out of both pipes to install the T and the ball valve.
While this was being worked on, the family was concerned about using the water. The septic pump was turned off while he worked, of course, but it had gone off not very long before he started, so there wouldn’t have been very much water in the greywater side of the tank. Any time I got a message, asking if it was okay to flush or shower or whatever, I encouraged them to use plenty of water, so we could have something to test with!
Before testing it, my brother went outside to check the diverter at the house end to make sure nothing got knocked askew while he was manipulating the pipe around. Once that was done and he was back inside, he turned the pump on manually – an easy thing to do, thanks to the second switch he installed for that! – and checked for leaks. There was a tiny leak at the elbow before it goes out of the house, so he tightened the screw clamp and added a second one, just to be safe. There was no leak when he turned the pump on again.
So we knew that effluent was flowing through the open ball valve in the diverter. We could see in the filter that water was flowing, and we could hear it, too.
We didn’t test for long, though, as we didn’t want to actually empty the tank.
The next test was with the valve closed. We were both watching that filter closely and, while there was movement, it didn’t look like it was flowing. The only way to know for sure, though, was for one of us to go to the ejector, while the other turned the pump back on.
My brother went to the ejector, then video called me on Facebook messenger, so we could see and show each other what was going on. Once he gave the go ahead, I closed the ball valve again and turned the pump on.
Nothing happened.
No flow out the ejector.
We waited a while to be sure, before I shut off the pump, then opened the ball valve again.
Which is just awesome. Without the valve, the only way to test if the ejector is working would require switching pipes – then switching back again when the test failed. Not only is that messy, but every time that is done, there is a risk of breaking something.
What this means is that the emergency diverter is now a permanent set up. Once the ejector is working again, we can close the valve, but can be ready to simply open it again, if we have more problems in the future.
We won’t be able to do anything with the ejector until things warm up a lot more. My brother thinks it’s most likely still frozen at the bottom. I think there’s something blocking the venturi valve. Worst case scenario, the pipe from the house itself is clogged, somewhere. That’s more than 300 feet of pipe, and a clog could be anywhere in there!
Either way, we won’t be able to find out until spring thaw.
Until then, the emergency diverter is our life saver!
Once the bypass valve was installed and tested, my brother headed out for home, with plans to visit our mother along the way – and bring her a hot supper to share. No meals on wheels on the weekend, so I’m sure she would appreciate it. I just hope she treats my brother well this visit. She’s really been on about how he was “keeping secrets” from her because they were so quiet about selling their acreage and moving, even though she knew that was why they brought their equipment here to the farm. I think she even forgot that they’d done that. Ah, well. I’ll find out later tonight!
I am quite pleased with how things have gone today. While I don’t have my seed starting set up in the basement yet – quite a bit more work will need to be done down there, still – I did get good progress down there, and was able to reclaim my work station. My brother got the bypass valve installed and, while we were doing that, my daughter was spring cleaning in the kitchen and dining room. She was able to get all the cat hair off the walls, ceiling, cupboard doors, the ceiling fan, pictures on the walls, curtain rods, etc. That alone was a HUGE job. With so many cats, of course there’s cat fur everywhere, but when it sticks to the walls and anything on them, it doesn’t want to come off! It won’t even vacuum off. She had to get right in there and scrub. She did an amazing job, though by the end of it, she was really needing painkillers!
So was I, by the end of it all. I haven’t gone up and down the stairs so many times in one day since we cleared and cleaned out the basements. Yes, I took my prescription painkillers in the morning, but even those can only deal with so much, and I can’t take more during the day, since I save my second allowable dose before bed. Pain is more of a problem when I’m lying down and trying to sleep than during the day. I can put up with it more when I’m up and about. Once I’m in bed, it keeps me from getting sleep. I did take some acetaminophen, though, to help take the edge off, at least.
I have a few last things to do in the basement before I call it for the day. Tomorrow is Sunday, which I try to keep as a day of rest. This will make sure I don’t over do it and put myself out of commission for days. As long as we get something set up for seed starts within the next week, it should be good. Most, if not all, of the seeds I ordered should be in by then.
From there, it’s the fun part: going through all the seeds and choosing which ones to start and when!
Today, I started on cleaning and organizing the basement.
Again.
A few years back, we were able to clear out all sorts of things from the “new” basement – the part that’s under the addition added in the 70’s. Lots of stuff went into the barn for storage until we could figure out what to do with them. Lots went to the dump. Eventually, we got it to the point that we could scrub and sanitize the concrete floor, and set it up into a useable space. We were even able to turn a table down there into a work station that I was able to use for wood carving and other general small building projects.
Then we used it as a maternity ward when Butterscotch and Beep Beep were both pregnant at the same time again.
Then we blocked off access to the old part basement so we could let the case into the new part basement. It became where we kept most of the litter boxes and and food bowls.
The cats, being cats, ended up using pretty much the entire space, as litter boxes. Sadly, that included my work station, causing damage to some of my tools, including some of my carving tools.
Then we had some wet springs and discovered the weeping tile was no longer doing its job. As water seeped through and fans needed to be set up, we had to start moving things wherever we could find the space, to get them out of the water, even though they were already on top of things like floor tiles that we found, to keep them from having direct contact with the concrete.
Eventually, we had to stop allowing the cats in the basement at all, and it’s been quite a disaster ever since.
Which meant we could move the barrier between the basements (there is no door; just a vaguely door shaped hole in the old basement wall), so we no longer have to go upstairs and around to the other door to go from one basement to the other.
It also means we have a large, cat free space.
Right now, my goal is to set up a space where I can start seeds in the last week of March. My original thought was to reclaim the work station and use that.
Well, that didn’t quite work out.
Because of how disorganized things have become, I need to work in stages, and that table was the first stage.
The table itself is a bit rickety, and has a larger sheet of not-plywood on top. After clearing the surface, I decided to take it off completely to see why the the table was so unstable.
It turned out that the surface was two wide boards nailed to the frame. The frame itself has extra cross pieces that allow for long items to be stored underneath – something I’ve found quite handy. There were still a few things under there, so that got taken out, too.
In moving the table around, I found the corners of one board were lifting, so I decided to secure both boards with screws. I used the old nails as guides on where to drill the pilot holes, since the frame they were on hid the supports they were nailed to. On one side, while drilling the pilot holes, I discovered gaps and had to drill new ones about an inch over. Then I had to add a couple more screws at each corner to secure it to the outer part of the frame as well as the supports I couldn’t actually see, underneath.
Securing it with screws did improve the ricketiness, but one corner still seemed to be lifting somehow. I finally tipped it on its side to see what was under there.
Which is when I could see just where these boards came from and, to be honest, it broke my heart a little.
Years ago, my parents bought some property as an investment. The building used to be a general store in the front, with living quarters in the back. The general store itself closed some time in the 60’s. There was a semi-detached storage building (which is now here at the farm), and I remember finding old inventory lists from 1963.
Most of the wall shelves were removed. I have a large section of one against the wall in my bedroom right now. Smaller sections were turned into dividers between the living and dining rooms. Other parts and pieces of them have been turning up in various places around the property.
The wood that was used to make these shelves is really excellent – and very distinctive in their size and colour.
The underside of the table had that distinctive colour. I couldn’t see it on the top, because it had been so scoured and damaged.
Even the larger board I moved looks like it came from this old store. Once I saw the underside of it, there were “shadows” showing it was part of something else. I even remember what it was. There was a multi-tiered display shelf in the old store, and this was the top of it.
Which also explains the cut off corners.
There is another sheet of this same wood that’s even larger that we found while cleaning the basement, and I now realize it would have been a lower level of this display shelf.
It’s such a shame that someone took apart these shelves and used this excellent wood to basically make a scrap material work table, and the surface got so damaged.
I never did find why it still seemed rickety, though. In fact, it handled being moved around quite well.
Once I had it upright again, I realized the narrower size of the table was much easier to reach around, and I considered not putting the sheet of not-plywood back on. However, my husband had picked up a huge self healing cutting mat for the work station, and it was finally going to be used – and it was wider than the table!
So, the top sheet went back on, and it turned out to be just a fraction wider than the cutting mat.
Then I put stuff back on the table, and I now have a work station again.
There is an outlet on a pillar opposite this wall and I’ve got a power bar running from there, across a floor joist in the ceiling, and a number of hooks to hold power cords up and out of the way. This allowed me to use my Dremel and wood burning tool, and now the charger for my drill and driver batteries. The power bar has USB ports, so I can set up a charger cable for my phone, too.
That top board is not attached in any way, so when it was time to put the vice back, I didn’t want it over the cutting mat. It is now on one end and holding the top piece to the table surface together. The top piece is almost exactly the same length as the table.
Before I’d put the table back and starting returning things, I made sure to clean the floor underneath as best I could without actually mopping it. I could see that the bottoms of the table legs had water damage. After looking around for something to protect them, I found my stash of old sour cream containers. I’ve been cutting those up to make plant markers, and had a bunch of them waiting to be used for that. It turns out the table legs fit in them, so we now have protection from water, if we get another wet spring.
Once that was done, I was happy to have a work station again.
However, I still don’t have a place to start seeds!
So I started working on the next section of the basement, at one end, clearing it out and mopping it. We have a low-to-the-ground twin size bed frame one of my nephews made that we painted and have been using for all sorts of things, inside and out. Once the end was mopped, I set it up under the counter was what was supposed to be a bar my late brother started building when he was in his teens and never quite finished. It has an outlet on the “outside” of the counter that we have found quite handy.
The bed frame is now set up under the counter, on bricks to keep it out of any water should we have issues again. I will be storing larger stuff on it, but made sure to plug an extension cord for us to use, as we won’t be able to access that outlet once the things are moved onto the bed frame.
The bed frame’s platform needed to be mopped, too.
After that was done, I set up a blower fan facing that end of the basement and am taking a break while it dries.
Oh! Break time is over! My brother is now here and in the old basement, figuring out how to set up the bypass valve so we can switch between the ejector and the emergency septic bypass. as needed – and not have to remove and switch pipes every time!
As usual, I dropped it off early. I confirmed it would be done around 2:30, and the mechanic said he would message me if they were done early, then headed out.
I made my way to a restaurant where I knew I could hang out for a while. Once done there, I didn’t want to go back to all the same places I went to yesterday, partly because the truck wasn’t going to take as long to be done. Then I remembered that there was a second hand store I’ve been meaning to go to for years, and just never got around to it.
It was a nice store. They’ve got lots of place available for their inventory at the moment, so it was easy to see everything. I did get a laugh when I found this display, though.
There isn’t a single crochet hook in there. It was right next to a bucket stuffed full of knitting needles. These were all short enough that they would have disappeared completely in there, so I can see why they’re in another display, but you’d think they’d change the label or something! 😄
Considering how many times I’ve been crocheting in public and had people ask me “what are you knitting”, though, it could simply be they didn’t know there’s a difference. 😁
Eventually, I meandered my way back to the garage. I got there early, and saw my truck was in the parking lot. The owner had stepped out, though, so I got to hang out in the office until he came back and could process the payment.
The total was pretty much where I expected it to be. After taxes, it was $245.88 The “oil cooler line gasket” was under $10, labour was only $50. The alignment was $159.99.
*sigh*
It’s all done, though. We shouldn’t have to go back to the garage again until our next oil change. Unless we want to replace those sensors with the dead batteries, and there is no urgency on that.
Now, hopefully, I won’t need to do more driving for quite some time! We’ve burned through a lot of gas, just since I reset our trip meter after filling the tank at Costco.
Oh. I forgot. I have to go to town tomorrow for a pharmacy trip. After that, however, I have no scheduled trips for almost 2 weeks!
Won’t that be nice!
Of course, there will be unscheduled trips. If nothing else, I’m hoping we can manage some birthday take out for my older daughter. She hates it when we spend money on her, though, even though I budget for it. We shall see.
For now, I’m just going to enjoy being home for the evening.
As far as a shopping trip goes, this one went quite well. There weren’t that many people expecting me, with my loaded flat cart, to stop on a dime or give way to them, and the lines went fairly quickly.
I just hate shopping.
I’m so glad my daughter was able to come along this time. She helps keep me sane.
There were a few things outside of the Costco trip, though, so I’ll start with that.
As we headed out, we stopped at my mother’s to do her med assist for the morning. We remembered to bring the LED Jesus candle I got for her. My daughter took it out of the packaging before we went in. Which is when we discovered it didn’t come with batteries. I’m used to these coming with their own flat disc type battery (I never remember what they are called). Instead, it took two AAs. Ah, well. She still seemed to like it. Then got distracted by my daughter’s gauged earrings and told her she should have “pretty” earrings. She should wear gold earrings, because some people in her building were saying that wearing gold earrings helps to prevent headaches.
…
Okay…
Well, it could have been worse. It usually is.
She also wasn’t sure with of my daughters had come along, because it has been sooooo long since she’s seen them. She also didn’t have her glasses, but it couldn’t be that. 😁😉
We didn’t stay for long, though. I made sure to make my notes for the med assist to put into the lock box for the next home care aid, and we were soon off.
While I intended to fill the tank at Costco, we were below half, so we stopped at the gas station. I only put $30 of gas in, but we also got some pastries (locally made) to tide us over, and a couple of energy drinks. That came to a total of $49.78
The next planned stop was for in the city for food – breakfast for me, lunch for my daughter. We stopped at a mall next to the Costco and went to the food court. My daughter chose Subway, and we both got foot longs and drinks. That totaled $34.01
There is a Dollarama next to the food court, and there were a couple of things I wanted to pick up there. For sure, I wanted to get batteries in smaller packages for my mother, plus there were a few other things I want to look for. I didn’t find them, but we did end up getting some non-disposable cleaning gloves for my daughter – her hands crack and split like crazy after doing dishes – and several rolls of clear self-adhesive shelf liners. We put those on the floor under the litter boxes, and they are in need of replacing. We also picked up several bowls. I’ve been eyeballing these bowls with a particular pattern for months now. We’ve lost a few bowls to breakage in the past while, there were only 4 of this pattern left, and they were only $2.50 each, so we went ahead and go them. Total spent at Dollarama was $31.25
Then it was pretty much across the street to go to the Costco, and I filled the gas tank, first. When I got gas in my mother’s town, it was at $1.579/L At Costco, it was $1.429 Even with the $30 I put in earlier, it cost me $64.07 to fill the tank.
*sigh*
Finally, we got to do the shopping we’d gone to the city for! We took our time about it, and I was quite happy to have an assistant today. My daughter ran around to get a few things on the list for me, so I didn’t have to maneuver the cart more than I had to. By the end of it, I was most definitely using the cart as a walker! When we got to the counter, my daughter insisted on unloading, and would not allow me to touch anything. This when she is mostly one handed because of her write ganglion hurting so much! What a sweetie!
This is what $841.29 looks like.
Sort of.
What’s on the cart isn’t quite how the totals on the receipt worked out. My membership was up for renewal, so that got added on. I have the executive membership (every time the cashiers see my flat cart, they ask to confirm I have an executive membership!), and the renewal fee was $130. I also got my rebate, which took $171.52 off my bill, so I came out ahead on that. The actual total, with the membership renewal but before the rebate, plus taxes, was $1012.81
I rather choked when I saw that.
Then she processed the rebate, and the total was pretty much exactly what I was expecting.
*phew*
The receipt was so long, partly because it got pulled out so she could check items, so there were big blank spots. I ended up taking 2 pictures of it rather than trying to fold them all short.
Here is the top half.
For our pasta this trip, we just got one of the big flats of Ramen noodles, as I was able to pick up pasta in our last stock up trip. There’s a 3 pack of oat milk for my daughters.
The baby wipes are something we realized we needed, when we couldn’t use our plumbing for so long, recently. We need to wash our hands quite frequently, and having to wash into bowls or buckets, then dump them out, was a pain. We used to regularly buy cleaning wipes before. The ones we got before were sold as “flushable” toilet wipes, which we found laughable. With my husband’s mobility issues, he would sometimes use them in general. After a while, we just stopped buying them. Now, I think we will try to keep some in the pantry for the next time we have plumbing or septic issues!
The next item is the membership renewal fee. Then there’s some Basmati rice, two big jars of mayo, and some ice tea mix.
The cowhide gloves were something my daughter spotted. We are in need of better work gloves than just the gardening gloves we’ve been using. It comes in a two pack, so she and I now both have good, leather work gloves.
Next on the list is a 3 flavour mix of granola bars. Yes, we did just get one at our last shopping trip, but that turned out to be a 2 flavour mix, so we have another.
Then we get to the stuff that stayed on the flat cart instead of going on the belt. There’s a flat of Coke Zero for my husband and I, and another of energy drinks for my daughters and I. It was nice to see the energy drinks were on sale! We also got paper towels, toilet paper and facial tissues. For the cats, we got a case of wet cat food, puppy pads and kibble. The 11.6kg size kibble was only a dollar more than the Kirkland 9kg kibble, so I got three. I almost never see those on sale, so I got more than planned. We also got another case of puppy pads.
The big expenditure was not a planned one, but a needed one. For quite some time now, I’ve been looking up steam cleaners. With so many cats, it has become a necessity. The Shark brand one we found was on sale, too. After some debate, we decided to go for it. This will probably save us a couple of armchairs, at the very least!
Now we’re into some actual groceries!
There’s a package of crimini mushrooms (mini bellas, on the list), and two 2 packs of salad mixes in two different flavours. I told my daughter to pick a seafood for her and her sister, and she picked up a salmon filet. We also got a family size pack of pork chips. There’s a 4 pk of cream cheese and a wheel of double cream brie, 5 pounds of butter, two packages of panini sandwich meats and a 3 pack of chickens.
Next are two 2 packs of rye bread, a double flat of eggs, and two packs of tortilla warps. The California rolls and the lasagna were for our supper. In fact, mine is cooling down next to me, right now, served in one of the new bowls we got at the dollar store!
In total, we had 44 items on that cart and, aside from the rebate, we has $66 in discounts taken off.
The sad thing is, we got almost no meats in there. I was looking at the beef and was shocked by the prices. The stewing beef – one of the cheapest options – was $22.29/kg. I saw a package that weighted 2.260kg and cost $50.28
1kg = 2.2 pounds.
I used to regularly buy packages this size, when they were typically under $20.
Thankfully, we still have some of our beef pack in the freezer, but we’re basically down to steaks. 😄
So that was our stock up shop!
Once we were packed up, we headed for home, stopping at my mother’s to drop off the batteries I got her, and put some in the LED candle we’d dropped off earlier. We also remembered to stop at the post office, then finally home.
The sad thing is, there were still things we need to get, but not at Costco. We’re going to need to make another trip to a Walmart.
Which my daughter and I have decided we will do tomorrow, and get it over with!
*sigh*
I will be so glad when we are done our stock up shopping!
Our first stock up shopping trip for the month is one where we go to three different stores that are all along one street. All three together came to $794.44 in total. This month was different, though, as we got quite a few things we normally would not have, on top of taking advantage of sales.
I did not try to take photos of the receipts this time. With all the extra printing of discounted amounts, they were pretty long. That and I haven’t been able to clear quite as much storage space in my WP account as I want to, yet. I will still take photos for my own personal records. Just not to post here, this time.
Our first stop was actually at my mother’s town. We didn’t need to get gas, as I filled the tank yesterday, but we did stop at the gas station to pick up a couple of much needed energy drinks. I also made sure to phone my mother before we left, to confirm she got her med assist visit from home care this morning. She did, so we were soon on our way.
Once in the city, our first stop was Walmart. Here, we wanted to make sure to not get anything that needed to be refrigerated or would be affected by the cold.
The only really usual thing I got was a couple of bags of kibble, to tide us over until I cat get to the feed store in the town north of us, tomorrow, and Costco, which will be the day after tomorrow. I got the 9.1kg size bags that now cost $29.97. These have actually gone down in price. The other usual thing was a 4 pack of energy drinks. There were also some personal hygiene items for my daughters.
I’m actually having a hard time reading what’s on the receipt, and figuring out what the item it, for some things. The shorthand names are sometimes just a bunch of consonants and numbers. I’ll try to remember what they were!
We got a new laundry basket for my daughters. We need to get two more, but have just one for now. I remembered to get an LED Jesus candle for my mother, so she can stop lighting a real candle when she says her prayers. Safter that way! My daughter remembered that we needed more bandages and found us a box.
We got two different types of mop head replacements, for our two different types of mops, including one that is used only in the basement. We also got a total of 6 boxes of chocolates, in three different flavour combinations, as they were at more than 50% off. We can store the extras in the freezer. I also found the Filipino soy sauce my husband likes; we usually get that at the international grocery store, but I actually found some in Walmart’s international aisle. Then we got a couple of cans of coconut milk for my daughters (I am not a fan of the stuff, myself).
We were running low on cleaners and were out of toilet bowl cleaner, so we got two spray bottles of cleaner and are trying a new “eco” brand of toilet bowl cleaner. We also stocked up on air fresheners. I got two that were specifically designed for pet odours, as some of our cats are particularly foul smelling when they use the litter boxes! We got a couple of others for more general use.
I think that was everything.
The total number of items sold was 26, and all but the kibble fit into the laundry basket. The total was $214.29
It would have been more, but two items we got – a new toilet brush, as our current one just lost is under the rim cleaner piece, and a new toilet roll holder – ended up not having their prices on them. We chose to leave them rather than try and find the prices. My daughter prefers to use self check out and offered to look it up, but I didn’t want to take the time. We figured we would look for them in Canadian Tire.
Which was our next stop.
There was only one thing I had on my list for Canadian Tire, but planned to look at other stuff.
Which I never got around to. We got distracted.
The two bags of litter pellets were what I wanted to get. We aren’t out, I wanted to get enough to last us the rest of the month. Plus, these had bonus Canadian Tire Dollars on them, right now.
My distraction was a portable mini greenhouse. I’d resisted getting it last month, but the sale was just too good; $89.93 instead of $189.99. We spent some time going over the display, debating its merits, then decided to go ahead and get it. It is basically a walk in version of the mini greenhouse we already have – which we can’t really use anymore, as it has become a very handy place for the outside cats, in the sunroom. We actually won’t really be able to use the sun room for transplants. I mean, we could, but having the portable greenhouse would just be better for our transplants and for hardening them off – and protect them from getting walked on and knocked about by the cats. It’s 4′ x 6′ and more then enough for our current needs.
When we decided to get it, I loaded it onto the bottom of the cart while my daughter kept the cart from rolling away. As we were doing it, there was an older gentleman with is cart, watching us. It looked like he wanted to look at the displays our cart was blocking, so as soon as we were done, we moved aside. Which is when he started to ask if we worked there, then realized that no, we obviously didn’t.
It turned out he wanted to get one of these greenhouses, too, and was looking for someone to help him load one into his cart. So we did it for him. He was quite happy, and we had ourselves a lovely chat – and we now have a recommendation for a type of geranium to grow. I am not a flower person, so I can’t remember the name, but my daughter is, and does.
Then, while walking around trying to find where the toilet brushes were, my daughter spotted a display of scoops. They’re meant for pet food, but we got it for our litter pellets, as the handle on the dollar store one we’ve been using broke off, so we’ve been using the remaining cracked scoop. I’ve been trying to find a good sized replacement for a while, so I’m really glad she spotted it.
We did find the toilet brushes, but I didn’t like any of the designs, so we didn’t get one. We never found the toilet roll holders.
We did find some amazing clearance prices for cat towers, but none were in stock. While trying to find them, we found ourselves looking at various scratching posts and scratch pads. I used to get the scratch pads made of corrugated cardboard. The cats love them but, unfortunately, we have a cat, or cats, that pees on them, and then they’re useless! What we did spot was an S shaped scratcher and lounger, that also has a dangling toy under part of it. The price was right, so we got that.
The cats love it!
While looking for the toilet brushes and holders, my daughter found something else that she’s been wanting for a while. One of those dust pans with a tall handle on it, so you don’t have to bend over to hold it in place while sweeping into it. It wasn’t very expensive, either.
Last of all, we remembered to pick up a cover for the truck’s steering wheel. It may be late in the season for it, but that steering wheel gets painfully cold. After looking at our options, we settled for the blingy-est cover we could find! The outer edge of it is all rhinestones. It was either that or fluffy fake fur.
All of this, in total, was $188.91 Less than what that greenhouse would have cost, if it were not on sale. So that wasn’t too bad.
By the time we were done there, it was past lunch time, so before we went to our next store, we stopped for food. After discussing our options, my daughter chose a DQ that was right next to the international grocery store. Our burger meals, upgraded to include a poutine for her, and onion rings for me, cost $36.92 in total.
Sharing the same parking lot is a Dollarama, and I wanted to go there to see if they got their garden stakes in stock, yet. I want to get more of the large ones, as they are really, really handy, a better quality than the ones I’ve found at Canadian Tire or Walmart, and a fraction of the price.
Alas, they did not have them in yet, though their garden supply section does have quite a lot already in. After going through the store to see about other things we were considering getting, I ended up getting myself a new, memory foam neck pillow. I prefer to use these instead of a regular pillow. I find my ears start to feel smashed on a regular pillow, and with the horseshoe shape of a neck pillow, that doesn’t happen. It only cost $5 before taxes.
Then, we finally went to the international grocery store; our last stop. I’d already been looking at the sales and special offers in their app and this was going to be a bigger shop than usual for here.
Again, I’m going to have to decipher some things on the receipt, which is in alphabetical order by brand name, so this list is going to be all over the place!
There is Oyster sauce (for the girls), a couple of Arizona Iced teas, on sale (for my daughter, one for the drive home), a large block of Old Cheddar cheese (excellent sale price!), an assorted Danish pack (for my daughters), some Black Garlic gouda cheese, Bubly sparkling water (for my daughters; I find the stuff disgusting!), a 3lb bag of carrots (on sale), a chicken Yakisoba bento box (my supper), two boxes of Coke Zero for my husband and I (all the canned drinks were on sale), and a small bottle of Coke Zero Orange cream (for the drive home, and a new thing to try – also on sale).
My daughter spotted something we haven’t seen in a very long time; packages of Polish cow fudge; a cream fudge with a cow logo. They were on sale, so I asked her to grab two. She also picked out a couple of packages of frozen dumplings, plus we got a couple of 2L cartons of oat milk for my lactose intolerant daughters.
The sales were good enough that I was able to stock up on frozen seafood for my daughters, too; Basa fillets and a couple of different cuts of salmon. I got a chub of ground beef that was on sale.
Baking chips were also on an excellent sale, so I got one bag each of mint, butterscotch and milk chocolate.
My daughter picked a bottle of coffee creamer. Also for the girls was a box of roasted seaweed and two shakers of Katsuo Furikake, which has Bonito flakes in it.
I got four loaves of rye bread, which were on sale, and a “lumber jack” sandwich (my husband’s supper – it’s big enough for two or three meals!). I found boxes of granola bars at a really good sale price, so I got two of them; one for my daughters to share and one for my husband and I to share.
We got a wedge of Porter Beer cheddar, and two bags of red potatoes. The red potatoes were more than half off. There was a sale on rice cakes, too, so we got four packages. We very rarely get rice cakes.
My daughter picked up some sesame oil and Shirakiku rice (I don’t cook with either), plus a couple of salmon roll sushi for her and her sister to have for supper.
I picked up some of the locally produced slab bacon; one regular smoked and one applewood smoked. All of that company’s products were 20% off. I got a couple of packages of thick cut bacon that were on sale. We also picked up a couple of boxes of frozen tempura pickle chips that were insanely discounted. Perhaps, after we try them, we’ll find out why! 😄
I forgot to get distilled water for my husband at the Walmart, so we got a couple of gallon jugs here.
Last on the receipt is some Bonito soy sauce my daughter chose.
These made for a grant total of $378.82 Our total savings is listed as $87.56 As our total was over $300, I also got 40x the loyalty points, plus they also had a double the points offer that did not have any purchase limit requirements. I am saving my points for around Christmas, when we can usually get free turkeys with points.
While this is a stock up shopping trip, this one was larger than usual, and had a lot of things we get rarely, or will probably never need to get again.
By the time we were done, both of us were in a lot of pain, and we were more than happy to be heading home!
We did have one last stop to make, though. We took our time with the shopping partly so that I wouldn’t be too early to stop at my mother’s for her evening med assist, since there was no one with home care available for her two evening visits. It was still earlier than she would usually have a home care worker arrive, but still within the time frame on the bubble pack for those meds. Still, I was early enough that I took the time to test her blood pressure and get a pulse oximeter reading first. Once that was done, I got her medications that she took right away, then got her later ones ready in the tiny bowl with a tagine cover on it that she likes so much. I made sure to record my visit details on the note that I left for the home care worker to read, tomorrow, and tuck that into the lock box with everything else.
While I was inside with my mother, my daughter got that new steering wheel cover on. While the bling is hilariously tacky and fun, it actually feels really good on the hands while driving!
I didn’t bring in the LED candle I got for her, though. It was too far back in the truck box to reach!
Once done at my mother’s, it was finally time to go home and unload. After unloading, my daughter waited until I started feeding the outside cats, and they were all lured away from the truck, before she parked it in the garage. My older daughter had already started to put things away, but she wasn’t feeling well and had to be careful not to move too fast. She was very happy to see those personal hygiene products! We were all happy to not have to cook supper!
The good thing is that, even if something happened and we couldn’t do our Costco shopping on Friday, we are stocked up enough to last us for quite a while. An Alberta Clipper is blowing through; we got a bit of snow today, and will be getting more over the next two days. Most of the system will be passing to the North of us, though, so it should not be an issue for travel.
In other things, I did not get a call from the home care coordinator. I’ll have to remember to call her tomorrow morning, before my daughter and I head out for her PCOS ultrasound.
I also got a message from our mechanic. That new oil sensor will cost $103.99, and he will not be charging us labour, since they cleaned, rather than replaced it, yesterday. To get the other things done that was noticed while they were working on the truck, will be another $648.65 for parts and labour. After much debating with myself, I have decided to go ahead and get it all done. It means using the credit card beyond our budget, but it’s either that or we drag it out over the next several months. Better to bite the bullet now and pay it off through the budget as if we had done it piecemeal, then to allow things to slowly worsen over time and potentially cost more, later. None of this includes replacing those wheel sensors with dead batteries, but all that means is we make sure to keep the tires properly inflated, which we do anyhow.
*sigh*
Having my husband’s disability payments come in once a month makes it easier to budget things. Going to the city to do our stock up shopping in bulk saves us hundreds of dollars per month, and leaves enough budget to buy things that need to be purchased more often, like eggs, milk, bread, fresh fruits, etc., locally. Especially when we happen to also be able to take advantage of sales that we would normally miss out on, because we live too far from the city to catch them. Still, it is awfully painful to see how much is being spent in just a couple of trips!
But no, the problem has not been fixed. In fact, it hasn’t even been identified.
When my brother got here, the first thing we did was see if the problem was with the pump itself.
I have learned a lot about this pump today!
The back valve was removed, and it was fine. Just a bit of gunk that would not have affected how it worked.
Since it was off anyhow, I gave it a thorough cleaning, along with the length of pipe and elbow that would be reattached to it.
From what we could see inside the back valve’s opening, the disc-type thing that would spin was also clear.
The pump has clean out valves, though. I had no idea what they were and couldn’t even see one of them without having to look around the outflow pipe from the filter. That was the next thing to check. Those have probably never been opened before, but my brother managed it. He took the bottom one out first, which was the drain, which is when we got a real hands on idea of just how much water is in that pump’s cannister section!
Trying to see into those openings was not easy. My brother got me to turn the pump’s switch on and off quickly, just so he could see things turning inside, using his phone as a flashlight. Everything looked fine. He did some cleaning around the thread and even poked around with a wire, but it was not all that gunky, either.
With everything checked and cleared, we tried again.
The pump ran, but no change. No water would flow.
Okay, maybe we just needed to prime the pump.
I had no idea there was a valve for that. As with the cleanout valves, it took a lot to get it open. Once it was, we used the hose I keep hooked up to the old laundry’s cold water tap all the time, because it’s just so handy. Once it was full, he closed it up again (making sure to Teflon tape everything, along the way), and we tested it again.
Nothing. No flow at all. The only change I could tell was that, with everything all nice and clean, the motor was running a bit quieter.
Okay, the pump seemed to be working. Could it be that something was blocking the tank’s outflow pipe?
There was only one thing left to do.
Put the emergency diverter back on.
If it worked after that, then we knew the problem was not at the house end.
Thankfully, when we switched it out before, I told my brother to just leave it aside. I would put it away in the spring, and then reseal the hole in the wall that it runs through. Which meant it was just a matter of switching pipes.
The outflow pipe from the pump to the ejector, however, always has water in it. It’s just a gravity thing. So we got a bucket handy before starting to take it off. As soon as my brother wrestled it loose, I got the bucket under it, so we did manage to catch most of it, but not all!
Yeah. I got splashed.
That out and set aside, the diverter was put back on. After double and triple checking that every thing was tight, we tried again.
Yes!!! It worked! Finally, the septic tank was draining!
My brother and I headed outside to check the other end, while my daughter stayed to monitor the pump. It emptied the tank and shut itself off before my brother and I could get to where it drains into!
Which means that the problem is somewhere from the house to the ejector.
We went to check the ejector.
The heat tape was not warm, but it has a regulator and will shut itself off based on temperature. Today has been a warm day, and is still warming up (as I write this, I see we just reached 0C/32F), so that makes sense. The extension cord’s plug has an indicator light on it, so we could see that it had power. Everything looked fine.
That doesn’t mean it’s not the ejector, though. It just means, we know it’s not frozen.
What it could be is that there is gunk in the venturi valve that finally just blocked the whole thing. The only way to know for sure is to pull it out. Which would require removing the heat tape, unscrewing the elbow at the top, unscrewing the cap, and removing both, then very carefully pulling the venturi pipe out of the stand pipe, so we can see the valve at the bottom.
Which we will NOT do until spring.
Yup. We’re on the emergency diverter for the rest of the winter, at least.
If it’s not the venturi valve being blocked, then it’s the pipe itself. A build up of crud inside the pipe could have come loose or something and blocked it entirely. Based on how well the water flowed out of the ejector after we got it thawed out and hooked up again, the pipe was running pretty clear. The only real hint that there was a problem was that it took longer for the pump to empty the tank than it did before.
There is nothing we can do about it until the ground thaws out.
Once the diverter was set up and working, my brother was prepared for another job.
Installing the power diverter switch.
The pump could be turned on and off using what is basically a light switch on the wall. Under normal circumstances this is in the “on” position at all times. The pump itself is triggered by the float and pill switch, inside the tank.
Sometimes, however, there is a need to check the pump, when the tank is not full enough to trigger it on. With all the septic problems we’ve been having, we needed to be able to turn it on manually, from inside the basement. The alternative would be to open up the septic can and use something long enough to catch the cable and raise the float. That’s something we want to avoid doing even in the summer. Not a chance, in the winter!
My brother set up a couple of wires set up outside the switch box that would allow us to turn it on manually. The pump’s switch would be turned off, the wires outside the box would be attached to each other, the switched turned on again, and the pump would run. When we were done testing it, we’d turn off the switch, undo the wires, cover and tuck them away again, then turn the switch back on so the pump could be triggered by the float again.
You can see the black covered wires from the pill switch coming up from below and into the box. The two wires sticking out the side from the same opening were the ones that could be joined to turn the pump on manually.
There was no schematic, so my brother had to be particularly careful in figuring out what was what. There were the wires from the breaker box (which was off, of course), the wires from the pill switch, the wires from the motor, the ground wires, and the manual diverter wires that all had to be kept track of!
He installed a new box, got all the wired sort out and attached to new switched, and put it all together, with one special feature, which you can see by clicking through to the next image (which Instagram, once again, messed with, so it’s off to once side instead of centred. *sigh*).
The manual switch has a safety cover on it, so that there is on way it can be turned on by accident!
Then he left the blue protective film on more me, because I commented on how I liked the blue colour. 😄
Of course, once everything was together – and before it was all closed up – the breaker was turned on and it was tested. I even made sure to get video of him explaining the which wires were which, so we can refer to it in the future, if need be.
My brother is so awesome. I don’t know what we would do without him! It even came up in our conversation today; my brother is the last living person who really knows this place. Another reason why I try to document everything, and learn as much as I can from him!!!
Once he was done with all this and his tools were safely put away and to the side, I did the floor pipe maintenance thing with the hose, showing him where I was hitting bottlenecks – except the second bottleneck wasn’t there! Or, at least, the hose passed through the opening just right, because he was there. 😄
Once that was done, I helped him haul all his tool boxes, bins and bags up and to his vehicle while my daughter, sweetheart that she is, took care of washing and disinfecting the floor. Mostly with one arm, since her ganglion is just not going away this time.
My brother may have finished up in the basement, but not with here! After loading up his car again, he went on to do things in their various storage areas for a couple more hours! Hopefully, the roads will be gone. We have just reached our high of the day; 2C/36F and are starting to get a bit of mixed rain and snow. We’re supposed to stay at this temperature through to tomorrow, even overnight.
Meanwhile, one of the first things I did was call dibs on the shower, after having been splashed while switching out that pipe. The honeypot has been put away, and we no longer have to use basins and buckets to keep water from draining into the full septic tank.
It feels so good to be able to shower again!
And use a flushing toilet instead of the honeypot.
Before I update on our whole septic pump situation, I just had to share this.
The cold hasn’t quite let go yet; when I headed out to give the outside cats their kibble and warm water, we were actually still at the coldest part of the “night”.
I was back inside when I got the above screen cap. -27C/-17F with a wind chill of -32C/-26F The south yard is sheltered from today’s wind, though, so it wasn’t feeling that cold.
If you click through to the next picture, you can see what the cold did!
I was putting kibble into the tray under the water bowl shelter, and my puffy park sleeve brushed against the solar powered light under the roof.
Brushed. Barely touched. Something I’ve probably done many a time and never noticed.
The plastic was so cold and brittle, it broke right off.
It still works, though. For now, I just draped the cord around the remains of the holder on the frame, and the light is hanging down. I don’t know how well the motion sensor will pick things up like that, but it should still turn on at least sometimes.
Today we’re looking at a high of -14C/7F, which is going to make things much more pleasant for when my daughter and I have to head out for our medical appointments. The drive is about 45 minutes on the highway, which isn’t too bad, and I’m happy to have gotten that tire check, yesterday. That’s one less worry! Tomorrow, I have errands for my mother, and then we don’t have to drive anywhere until I’m taking the truck to the garage for the engine flush/oil change/sensor replacement BEFORE we start doing our stock up shopping trips to the city. I will be very happy to have the check engine light off and the oil pressure gauge working again.
Not as happy as we will be once we get that septic pump working again.
Which, unfortunately, won’t be for a while.
My brother called last night and we talked about it. Unfortunately, his schedule is so insane, the earliest he can come out is Sunday – and he wasn’t completely sure of that, either. The alternative is to call a plumber but 1) who knows if they’d be able to come any earlier and 2) neither of us are comfortable with that. Our system is not common and, in some ways, unique. I don’t know that I’d trust someone to work on it that has never seen it before. There are just too many things that could be broken, if work isn’t done in the right sequence.
After looking at the video I sent him, my brother is not convinced the problem is the back valve, though that would be the first thing to check. He described how this pump works, and some work he’d done on it in the past. Some pumps use a piston to get the water flowing, which can wear out and break down relatively quickly. This pump has something he describes as a hockey puck. A disk that spins. The disk has texture on it, and that spinning gets the water flowing. This spinning disk system lasts much longer and is less likely to break. However, if the disk isn’t spinning, the pump could be running, but there would be no flow happening.
He has had to work on this before, during the years we lived in other provinces. Something had gotten caught in the disk. He had to take it out, unwrap the stringy whatever it was to clear the disk (remember, ladies: don’t flush tampons!), then put it all back together again. It has been working fine ever since.
Part of why he thinks this might be a problem is a noise he could hear in one of the videos I sent him. That noise actually didn’t start until I restarted the pump again to take the video, but the pump also has an almost grinding sound. Nothing huge, but a sort of sound I might not have noticed, if I didn’t already know how the pump was supposed to sound like. If the pump is running dry because it’s not pulling water from the septic tank, that could be the bearings getting worn out, which would make that sound.
He’s really hoping he doesn’t have to replace the pump. This brand no longer exists, and the only other brand around right now is made in China. That’s it. No one else seems to make these pumps anymore. The type of pump that is more common is a pump that is installed IN the septic tank and is fully immersed. Which is supposed to be much better, but I have a real problem with that. It would require excavating the tank to install one and, if anything goes wrong, the tank would have to be excavated again to repair or replace it. My brother that to get the tank excavated to access the pipes, back when my father was still living here, and it cost him $5000. It would easily cost much more than that, to get that sort of work done, today.
So we are stuck with the system we have.
And stuck with not using our plumbing for at least another 4 days, including today.
Oh, we can still use our water. We just have to avoid draining anything into the septic tank. It is full, but not over full. Right now, the only water going in there is when we very quickly wash our hands in the bathroom, after using the honeypot, which would have negligible effect on the tank’s level. For anything else, we use basins and dump the water outside.
Speaking of honeypots.
I’d found the honeypot seat in a shed, years ago, and I am very thankful for it. It is designed to fit over any 5 gallon bucket, which we also found. This set up is great for a rare use.
We are using this thing a LOT more often than expected.
A 5 gallon bucket is not particularly stable; not when we have a houseful full of gimps. The size and shape of a seat that fits on a bucket is also… not easy to finish up on, shall we say.
So today, I’ve been looking at alternatives. It won’t be of any help for us now, but the way things have been going, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we will need something like this again.
We do actually have a fancy camp commode in the basement that is flushable. We found it while cleaning up the basements a few years ago, with water still in it. The problem is, the base is missing, so it can’t be used. It’s not something that could be put on top of a bucket or something, due to its design.
I started looking at medical commodes, like what home care provided for my mother, but ended up looking more at camp commodes, and even just a seat on a folding stand. A bag could be hung from the stand before the seat is put on but, for our use, it would be set up over the 5 gallon bucket. The thing I really like about that one – aside from the padded seat! – is that it’s taller. Almost as tall as the higher toilet we have, which would be easier on the knees.
That’s the kicker in looking at various designs. We all have various mobility issues; even the girls. These need to be taken into consideration. Plus, we wouldn’t be using this for camping, but to set up in our bathroom for when we have situations like right now, where we can’t use the plumbing. It’s not a particularly large bathroom, though there is more space if we store the bath chair in the tub while the honeypot is set up.
I had to laugh at my brother’s reaction when he found out we line the bucket with a garbage bag. I was telling him how we are using the stove pellets we use as cat litter in the bag to absorb moisture. Then, when the bag is changed out, it’s tied off and set in the old kitchen to freeze until we can go to the dump. He found that rather horrifying. He thought we were just using the bucket, without a liner of any kind, then dumping it in the bushes. Which is what I find rather horrifying! True, that’s what we did before we got running water in the house, when we used a bucket in the basement in the winter, because going to the outhouse just didn’t make sense with so many little ones (like me, at the time). I only vaguely remember the emptying of buckets, since I was too small to have been given the job. My brother, as the oldest of the boys, would have been doing it more often.
The thing is, if we don’t use a garbage bag and instead dump the contents in the bushes behind the outhouse (where we already have a litter compost pile), the bucket would need to be cleaned every time. Which is the part I shudder at. It’s not like we can use a hose to clean it out, like we could in the summer. We’d have to dump the contents, use the bathtub to clean the bucket, go out again to dump out the wash water, then rinse it and go back out again to dump the rinse water.
I’ll just use a garbage bag, thanks!
We might need to invest in biodegradable bin liners, though, given that we have had to use the honeypot so much more often than we ever expected! If we have those, then we could use the litter box compost instead of taking the bags to the dump.
Of all the plumbing problems we have had in this place, septic related ones have been the worst to deal with!
We’ve been fighting with this all winter, finally getting the pump fixed, with a surprise find, and the diverter added in January while the ejector was still frozen.
Since we got the ejector thawed and the diverter was no longer being used, I’ve been checking the pump pretty regularly. Not obsessively, like I did for the first while, but still frequently.
One of the things I noticed, and even managed to time, is that the pump takes longer to drain the tank than it used to. Talking to my brother, I was thinking there might be more gunk stuck in the back valve. My brother suggested there could also be gunk partially blocking the venturi valve at the bottom of the ejector. Not something we could check until spring. The back valve on the pump would also be checked. We really want to avoid opening things up if we can, as that risks breaking things, and then we’d really be hooped. So, I just monitor.
I noticed that the water level in the filter started to drop, from filling the cannister entirely, to stayed at the level of the inflow opening. It wasn’t running dry, though, and seemed to stay steady, so I would sometimes top up the cannister after the pump was done, adding a bit of dish detergent to break up any grease that might be coating the pipes to from the cannister to the pipe and maybe clearing away anything in or around the back valve.
I hadn’t done that in a while, as the water level was staying the same and things were working.
When I heard the pump running last night, I decided to check it. Things seemed to be flowing as usual, but it was getting hard to see through the lid of the filter. It was starting to get cloudy from grease and grime.
So when the pump stopped, I opened the filter to wash the inside of the lid. I gave a squirt of detergent into the cannister, then scrubbed the lid at the old laundry sink next to the pump.
Normally, I would have then topped up the filter cannister with water, then put the cover back on.
This time, however, I found the water level in the cannister had actually gone UP – and was still going up, and began to overflow!
I popped the lid on and tightened the ring, and the water level stopped rising.
There are two openings in the filter cannister. Inflow and outflow. With the back valve, water only gets in through the inflow. But the pump was off. When the filter first gets opened, there is a gurgle as water in the cannister drains into the inflow pump, because, gravity. There should never be inflow when the pump is not running, because that would be water running uphill, so to speak.
The other alternative is the water was coming from the bottom. If the back valve was not properly closed, because something is caught in it again, liquid in the pipe to the ejector (and there is always some liquid in there) could flow back into the pump and through the back valve, into the cannister. Again. Gravity. The outflow pipe from the pump itself to the ejector is vertical for a few feet, then runs horizontally along the wall, out the basement and to the ejector.
Once things were closed up, all we could do was wait until the next time the tank was full enough to trigger the pump.
Which was this morning, while my daughter was in the shower.
I heard the pump turn on and it ran for a while before I was able to head down.
Which is when I saw there was NO water flow.
The cannister water level had dropped to the level of the inflow opening, but there was no outflow. Suds in the water showed me that the pump had not gone off during the night, while I was asleep.
I stopped the pump, primed it, turned it on again.
There was an initial splash from the inflow pipe, but no outflow. All it did was make more suds.
I tried again.
Still no outflow.
So I turned off the pump and let my daughter – who was still in the shower – know what was happening.
I then got ready to check on the ejector, in case that was frozen again. It was early enough that the outside cat stuff wasn’t done, so I did that first, then headed towards the barn.
I hadn’t been checking the ejector recently, because of the dangerously cold temperatures we’ve been having. The ejector has heat tape around it, and is sheltered on three sides.
When I got to the ejector, I could see the splash zone in front of it was much smaller, but with the cold we’ve been having, that’s to be expected. The water simply froze faster.
The heat tape was warm, so that was still working, and the nozzle at the top was clear. No evidence that the ejector is frozen again.
While I was doing that, my daughter set up the honey pot in the bathroom again.
*sigh*
I took video of what was happening and sent to my brother. The first thing I would want to do is check that back valve, but we don’t have the tools to do it. Specifically, a heat gun to soften the pipe so it can be taken apart and put back together.
If worse comes to worse, we should be able to set the diverter back up again. It was never put away, with the end just set aside. I didn’t want to have a hole in the wall to close up in the winter, so the pipe is still running through it.
I hate to ask this of him, but I really hope my brother is able to come by tonight to work on this. He hasn’t seen the messages I’ve sent to him yet, though.
Meanwhile, this afternoon, I’m going into town to get that tire on the truck checked. I made sure to check it this morning, after going to the ejector, and it seems to be holding air fine. When I found it low, yesterday, the truck had not been used for several days since the tire got fixed.
Since I’m going to be in town, anyhow, I’ll bring our water jugs to refill at the grocery store after the tire is checked and fixed.
Tomorrow, my daughter and I have our double medical appointment. We will be leaving early, as our first stop will be at the other medical clinic, where I will pick up my medical files to transfer to my new doctor, and get the bloodwork requisition for my mother. I will make sure to check the date of her last blood tests, as they are supposed to be a month apart. I’ll be taking her in to get that done in either late February or early March. Probably early March. Then, the day after tomorrow, I’m doing my mother’s grocery shopping. Next week, we start our stock up shopping trips to the city, and in the middle of that, my daughter has some medical scans that are being done in the town to the north of us. We’ve never been to their hospital/health care centre before.
So getting that tire checked today is pretty important!
Losing our septic again, on top of this, is just s*** icing on a s*** cake.
I am so tired of the plumbing in this place. I understand why we have the system we do, but I really wish was had a gravity septic system, not an ejector system. The less technology there is, the less there is to break down – and I say this as someone who loves my technology!
The Re-Farmer 