While doing my morning rounds, I found myself contemplating this area.
This is a lower area along one side of our driveway. As you can see in the distance, the melted snow collects along some of the fence posts.
Which would be why almost all of them are rotted out and falling pretty much being held up only by the barbed wire.
When we first started mowing in this area, I found in insanely rough along the fence line, as if it had been tilled, then left. I think someone may have had the idea of making a drainage ditch.
At the far end, there is a dug out area that veers around that fence line, then runs under the fence on the property line, and to the ditch.
Not that it can drain very far right now, considering the ditch is full of piles of snow from when our driveway was cleared.
I don’t know what it was like when it was first dug out, but it’s very rough and pretty shallow. But then, so is the ditch itself. I’m thinking someone just ran a tiller along the fence line, and that’s it.
I was thinking that this side of the driveway would be a good place to eventually plant some low growing fruit trees or berry bushes. The area gets full sun and is fairly sheltered. The water that collects when the snow melts, however, would be a problem. We might want to finish the job someone else started, and dig out a drainage ditch, before planting anything along here.
The melting snow and receding water has allowed me to get into more areas, including the back of the storage house. There is a window that the cats (and skunks) use to get in and out from that side. It had only one out of three panes of glass left, and a board with a hole in it, replacing one pane. I set up a small piece of plywood over the window so that the cats could still get in and out, but it would also reduce how much weather got in. It often gets knocked out of place, but I hadn’t been able to get to the area to put it back until this morning.
Which is when I saw the last pane of glass was missing.
Remarkably, it had fallen inwards, but didn’t break! (The shard of glass under it is probably from the missing window pane.)
For now, I’m leaving it where it is, but we’ll collect the glass later and see if we can put it back into the frame.
Also, the appears the space under the storage house has been used as a massive litter box.
For now, I just put the old piece of plywood back to shelter the openings a bit.
I think, when we finally get around to fixing up this window a bit, I might attach strips of carpet to the top of one of the openings without glass, like what my brother put over the door of the dog house he made, that is now our cat house. He put in a double layer of carpet cut into strips that’s easy enough for dogs ore cats to get through, and think enough to keep the weather out.
While going through the area behind the storage house, I found quite a few fallen branches. I dislodged the largest one that was hung up on some trees. It was really dry, so I brought it over to the fire pit area. There are other hung up on branches, or on the ground, but that’s a clean up job for after the snow is going.
After all the running around yesterday, I wasn’t expecting to do more of it today!
However, my husband got a notification that a package of his was at the post office. At the same time, he got a call that his Purolator package was at their drop off in the town my mother’s in, because apparently they don’t drop off in the town closer to us.
He knew what the one at the post office was supposed to be, but had no idea what was being shipped by Purolator. We thought it might be the cast iron Dutch oven he ordered for me as an early Mother’s Day gift, but when I double checked, I confirmed it was coming by mail – and was supposed to arrive tomorrow. His expected package was going to be much, much smaller and lighter, too!
When the post office reopened for the afternoon, I headed there first. There turned out to be another package waiting for one of my daughters, plus a large, heavy box!
Not as heavy as I was expecting a cast iron pot to be, though. Plus, it came with a lid lifter that should have made for a longer box.
After loading the boxes up, I then drove to the town to pick up the Purolator package. The drop off was at an auto mechanic’s shop I’d never been to before. After telling the lady at the desk why I was there and showing my ID, she left to get the package.
When is when the most gorgeous, long haired calico came out to follow her until the door closed.
A friendly calico that came over and let me pet it!
I’m a sucker for cats.
The parcel turned out to be a large, flat envelop that weight basically nothing.
It turned out to be the package my husband was expecting at the post office.
So what was in the big box?
Well, it turned out to be my new Dutch oven after all!
So the skinny, virtually weightless package was sent by Purolator, while the big heavy item went by post!
The cats wouldn’t move to let me take pictures. :-D
Of course, everything was immediately covered in cat hair.
While the whole thing turned out to be lighter than I was expecting, my other surprise was how short the lid lifter is. Somehow, even with the photos, I thought it would be much longer. It’ll still make move the lid around much easier, than trying to manage with something else.
You can see the base of the carry bag, which is quite solid, plus it has the extra support from the straps that make the handles, wrapped all the way around.
I do like that lid design.
Do does Cheddar!
Well, one thing about the lid lifter being shorter than expected, is that it fits on the carrier, along with the pot itself.
The set also came with a thank you card, as well as care instructions in several languages.
The other side of the thank you card included the QR code to download the free recipe e-book for the Dutch oven.
Unfortunately, all I got was a message on my phone saying that it couldn’t open that type of link.
So I went to the website to see if I could find it there. While looking around, I did find a link to download a free recipe book, however it was for tortilla recipes. This place makes quite a lot of products, including quite a few for Mexican cooking. It took some searching before I found the Dutch oven we got. I did find their recipes section, and was eventually able to find their recipes for Dutch oven cooking. They also sell enamelled Dutch ovens, too, so the recipes were for both, but at least I found some.
I ended up using their contact form, told them what the issue I was having was, and asked if they could just email the e-book to me. We’ll see how that works out. Of course, it’s easy enough to find recipes for this type of Dutch oven. I recently took advantage of a sale on whole chickens, and I think that would be a great thing to try first. We have time to decide, though. It’s way too windy and muddy to get the fire pit going, for the next few days, at least. Plenty of time to prepare!
Since I was in town anyway, I swung by the grocery store and got a few things for a cookout, including the ingredients for S’mores. We tried making those for the first time, during one of the rare times it was safe to light a fire, a couple of summers ago, and they were quite fun.
This Dutch oven is pre-seasoned, and ready to use immediately. I’ll likely give it at least a hot water rinse, though, before it’s used.
So we did get a bit of snow sticking around after last night’s storm. Not as much as was predicted, and not at all like what people got to the south of us. Certainly nothing to complain about, considering some places in the US got tornados. !!
The outside cats were quite excited for the kibble! From the hoof tracks in the mud and slush, it looks like the deer ate up all their kibble again. :-(
My daughter had set up the rain barrel, and it’s already about 3/4 full! I put the diverter back on, just in case. I look forward to when we have a barrel set up with an overflow, and not have to be concerned about that.
You can tell where the trees are. The slush froze into spatters from all the extra ice and snow falling from the branches.
Lots of kitty paw prints and deer tracks, too.
The “lake” formed near the garage is still as big as ever.
The new snow hides it a bit in the shallower spots, but it extends across the driveway and gets deeper again, along the snow ridge.
The path from the driveway to the back of the garage is almost completely filled with snow melt, but it gets quite a bit deeper here. The water isn’t quite reaching the outhouse, though. It now stops where we now have that metal sheet, on top of gravel, where the hole under the outhouse had been filled. Between that and the paths we dug, I think it’s actually helped keep the water collecting further from the outhouse.
If we ever wanted to dig a pond in the inner yard, this would be the natural place to do it. :-D
The door to the back of the garage is several inches above grade, plus it has gravel built up to it, with an old paver right at the door itself, so while the water collects here in front of the door, it stays away from the garage itself. There is some moisture getting in, though. In the side my mother’s car is parked, I can see areas that are wet. There’s a lot of snow on the side of the garage that’s slowly melting, and it’s seeping under the wall. The main issue with that is, there are repurposed wooden shelves on the inside, against that wall, and it doesn’t look like anyone thought to put the lower counter shelves on something, to protect them from moisture. As far as I can tell, it’s sitting directly on the dirt floor.
At some point, we’ll be able to start cleaning and organizing the garage. I’d like to move those shelves out, so we can actually open my mother’s car door wider, without having to park it so close to the other wall.
But that’s a big job, and far from a priority right now!
Though there was about an inch of frozen slush everywhere when I first came out, it’s already melting fast.
When I started my rounds, the sidewalk and patio blocks were covered with snow, but after about half an hour, the blocks were almost completely clear. Only the end of the sidewalk, which had deeper coverage and is partly shaded by trees, was not yet clear.
In fact, even with the new snow, things have melted enough that – with the additional help of all those deer making a path – I could finally get to the front of the shed that lost its roof, not long ago.
You can’t tell in the photo, but it looks like the antique plow in the back corner on the right, is okay. The roof seems to have fallen over it, but not on it.
That board in the foreground, with the nails sticking through, is actually hanging from the side of the opening. It used to be one of the supports, keeping the cross beam from sagging. The other one is still in place.
It’s going to be quite a job to clean this up. It should be interesting to see how much lumber we’ll be able to salvage out of this.
It will be a while before we can access it, though, and for there to be enough dried ground to put anything we pull out of here. Since I plan to salvage the materials to build a chicken coop, so we can have chickens next spring, this clean up is nearer the top of the priority list.
I just made a quick trip into town to pick up a few things. Of course, I ended up getting more than planned! There were some good sales on stuff that will be for the Easter basket, and others to add to our pantry and freezer. A two for one whole chicken sale is not something to pass up! ;-)
We also had a package to pick up at the post office – where I made sure to warn the the postal worker that there would be a rather heavy package expected on Friday. Not that I think she’ll have a problem with it. She’s a farm girl, too! Still, lifting something that turns out to be unexpectedly heavy can lead to injuries, so I wanted to make sure she was aware.
Today’s package was an upgraded OBDII reader.
The one we have is basic and does the job, but this one should provide us with more information. It also has a proprietary app, and 24 hour customer service. I’ve downloaded the app and will have to test it out, the next time I’m in the van. With this new reader, we can keep the old one in my mother’s car.
While folding up and putting away the wagon in the sun room, I noticed something that I’m sure wasn’t there, this morning.
A puddle of glue under the reflector we made yesterday!
I used watered down all-purpose glue on the sheet of insulation to adhere the aluminum foil, applying a very thin coat with a paintbrush. I knew the glue wasn’t going to stick very well to the insulation, but I figured it would at least dry and adhere enough to hold the foil in place.
I did not expect it to leak like this, instead! That’s quite a lot of glue, too, for the amount that was used in the first place.
Ah, well. It’s still sticky and holding the foil in place, plus the foil is held by tape on the back. It’ll stay, and that’s all the matters, really.
Remarkably, my quick fix using cord held, while the metal crimp at the other end gave out.
We have no way to keep it from the deer right now, so we’re giving up for now. Once the snow is gone and there is food available elsewhere, the deer stop coming to the feeding station, so we will wait before putting the feeder back up.
Which is too bad, because the birds were really happy to have it back!
We certainly expect to have issues with squirrels and raccoons getting at the hanging feeder. I never expected to have issues with deer going after it! We’ve had hanging feeders there since we brought the stand from where we found it in the maple grove to this area, and the deer had never gone for it until this year. Mind you, with the wind constantly knocking the stand down, they didn’t have to. Now the main post is buried in the ground, so that might be making the difference. That and it’s March, and there’s still lots of snow on the ground, so they’re probably getting pretty hungry.
Which reminds me.
Since we had to dig out the septic tank, we now have access to that corner of the house. The roof faces north, and is the only place we still have snow. It builds up in a corner where the old kitchen roof joins the main part of the house, where a huge ice dam forms. Most snow remains on the north facing roof of the old kitchen.
This morning, I brought over the extended pole roof shovel to see if I could break through the crust that has formed on top of all the snow, and get some of it down. It actually worked, more or less. I got a lot more down than I thought I would, though even with the pole extended as long as it could, I still couldn’t reach parts of the snow. In some places, it was because the septic tank lid itself was in the way.
Still, I got quite a lot of it down. The ice dam in the corner now has several feet of built up snow cleared away from it, so it should actually start melting faster, as it’s no longer in the shadow of the snow pile. I must say, though, walking around on that insulated tarp was its own challenge. That thing is so slippery! However, the snow I got down mostly landed on it, so when it melts, it will flow away from the house. I guess that makes one benefit for the insulated tarp that straw doesn’t have. I still think we’ll go back to covering the tank with straw, though. Much easier to access the tank with a lot of snow on the ground!
Ugh. I really should be heading into town right now, but I just don’t want to go.
You know, for someone who is a hermit by nature, I’ve been out and about an awful lot lately!
Today I was out again, after an unexpected change in plans. With the roads clearing up and the days warming up, my mother was wanting to finally visit her sister in the nursing home, to see for herself how she is doing. Every time I suggested a day, though, she would defer on making a decision, and then say that she’d go any time I had the time to take her. She just wanted me to give her at least a day’s advance notice. So a few days ago, after looking at the forecast and seeing that Friday (today) was supposed to be warmer, I called to suggest Friday.
Oh, I was thinking Sunday, she tells me.
Hmm. Apparently, I was supposed to know this somehow? :-D
So we arranged for a trip on Sunday.
Then last night, while I was on my way home from visiting my friend in town, she called. It was pretty late when I got home, but I got through to her before she’d gone to bed.
She had been talking to someone in her building. They told her Friday was supposed to be a nice warm day, so she thought that might be a better day to visit her sister, instead of Sunday, and was I okay with that?
Oh, Mom.
I still had the day open, since that was the day I’d suggested to begin with, so of course, I was okay with the switch, but my goodness, that was funny.
We timed it so that she could visit in between when they would be doing lunch and supper. I used her car, of course, and left early enough to put some gas in the tank.
*sigh*
I filled the tank in our van last night. Gas was at 174.9/L It cost me almost $50 for a quarter tank. This morning, gas was up to 177.9/L My mother’s car was closer to 1/2 than 3/4 full, and she has a smaller tank than I do. It still cost almost almost $40 to fill her tank, and I didn’t even fill it all the way. The nozzle kept shutting itself off, so I kept restarting it until the pump got to what I knew would be close, and it turned out to be just a hair under full when I stopped.
Of course, with gas prices going up, the price of everything else is going to keep going up, too. :-(
We made the trip to where my aunt is, and since they still require masks and I can’t wear one (my mother shouldn’t be wearing any, either), I dropped her off with her walker and helper her in to the doors, where they had someone set up at a table. While my mom was being tended to before being allowed in, I found a place to park. We’d talked about where we were going to eat after the visit, and I’d suggested a fish and chips place instead of her usual fried chicken restaurant. She’s not doing meat on Fridays, so she agreed. I’m pretty sure the chicken place has fish and chips, too, but she would have just ordered fries if we’d gone there. It’s a tiny place and has only street parking, so after I parked my mom’s car, I quickly walked over to see how busy they were and what the parking situation was like, before heading back to the nursing home and waiting for my mom outside.
Her visit with my aunt was much shorter than expected, so I wasn’t waiting for long. We headed over to the restaurant so she could fill me in on how it went. Unfortunately my aunt, who’s 98, did not recognize my mother. She doesn’t talk anymore, and she fell asleep while my mother was there. At least my mother got to talk to the nursing staff about her sister, and left small gifts for her for later.
These visits are very hard on my mother. Still, she was glad to have finally seen her, and talk to the staff directly about how she’s doing. My mother can’t navigate their automated phone system, so I’ve been the one calling the nursing home to get updates for her which, thankfully, they are allowing. I’m not on the list of contacts for my aunt, but my mother is, and I’m someone they recognize as speaking on behalf of my mother, so they can give me information. Still, it’s not the same as my mother being able to actually see and try to talk to her sister, in person.
I told my mother that, now that the roads are clearing up and the temperatures are getting nice, she can visit her sister more often, and that I would be happy to drive her. She started saying, what’s the point? Her sister doesn’t even recognize her. I reminded her it’s been a long time since my aunt has seen her. If she visits more often, she might start recognizing my mother. Plus, at least she’s be able to see for herself how her sister was doing. My mother said she would think about it, but later on the the drive home, she brought it up again as if it was something she’s just thought of herself, and said it would be good to visit more often, now that the roads and weather are better… :-D
The place we ate at is very generous with their portions, and neither of us could finish even half of the fries, so we boxed those up. My mother didn’t want the fries, so she suggested I could give it to the cats. She’d covered hers with salt and vinegar, and I didn’t think that would work, but I took them anyway. My mother took advantage of having access to a car and we went to a couple of places before I took her home. While we were doing errands, I got a message from one of my daughters with a photo.
They’d got a fire going in the fire pit and were having a wiener roast for supper! We’ve used the fire pit so rarely since we’ve moved here, due to fire bans and drought conditions, so I was really happy that they did that.
By the time I was driving my mother home, I was so very tired. Being around people too much just sucks the energy out of me, and with all the other errands we’ve been running in just the past week, I was pretty wiped out. I think I was even more tired than my 90 yr old mother! :-D So I didn’t stay long after putting her groceries away. It’s a good thing I left when I did, because it was starting to rain! It was mostly done by the time I got home, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be driving on those roads any later in the day.
My daughters were still doing their cookout when I got home! They had the hardest time keeping the fire going, even with having access to dry wood.
The rain starting certainly didn’t help, but it didn’t rain enough to have to end their cookout, and it stopped shortly after I got back. I joined them for a while. It felt so good to be sitting at a fire like that, even with the mud all around the fire pit.
Then, since I had all those fries, the girls brought out cast iron pan to reheat them on the fire grill. I’m told they were quite delicious done that way! :-D
I didn’t stay out for too long, though, and left them to their cookout. I did pause to check out one of the little “lakes” that are forming in our yard!
Getting to the compost pile is going to be a bit of a challange!
We’ve got snowmelt forming a “lakes” forming all over the yard and in the paths we’ve dug right now! All that water, in between all that still-deep snow, is quite the sight!
We’re still supposed to get a bit more rain, then temperatures are supposed to dip below freezing overnight. I was going to say, I’m glad I won’t have to go anywhere for a few days, but I just remembered that we will at least need to go into town again to refill our empty water jugs. I really should have done it today, but it’s not something I could do while running errands with my mother. After that, we should have a few days “off”. I hope! At least until the middle of next week, when we’ll be dropping Turmeric off for her appointment at the vet that the Cat Lady arranged. Then, that same evening, we are now scheduled to pick up the freezer pack of beef I ordered last night. I chose their large “rancher” variety pack. The only item in the pack I know for sure will be in it is ground beef. I’m quite content with “surprise” packs, because we sometimes end up with cuts we normally wouldn’t think to get, usually due to the price/pound. Because it’s in a bulk pack, the price is by the pound for the whole thing, not for individual cuts, so we end up with a better price – and higher end cuts!
It’ll definitely be worth the extra running around.
Still, it all leaves me feeling so very tired. At least it’s a good tired, though!
When it was almost 4pm and the septic guy hadn’t showed up yet, I called and left a message, asking if he was still going to be able to make it. I got a call over an hour later. He’d had a breakdown, but everything was up and running again, so he was on his way over. It was almost 6pm when he got here!
Then he had the “fun” job of turning his truck so he could back through the gate in the chain link fence and down the newly cleared lane in the snow. He did get a bit stuck a couple of times. Not because he was sinking in soft ground – that was still well frozen. Because he was driving so slowly and carefully, he ended up spinning his tires on ice!
One of the spruce trees at the edge of the grove, closest to the house, died last summer. I’d been thinking that, when we have it cut down, we could leave the stump to use to support one of the tables and benches we want to put in the area, eventually. Or maybe a platform feeder for critters.
I’ve changed my mind.
We’ll get that tree, and the other dead one next to it, cut down as flat to the ground as possible, so the septic truck has more room to maneuver! It’s pretty tight in there for such a large truck!
Then, as he was setting up the hose to the tank, he had to take a blow torch to the lever to turn on the suction.
A blow torch wielding septic guy. I love it.
Meanwhile, I made sure to uncover the tank, and take out the screw that holds the lid in place.
Unfortunately, I had to switch tips on the screwdriver, and the tips were frozen into their holder, so it took a while to get the one I needed out!
I got it done, though, and he was finally able to empty our tank for us.
Yay!!!
Shortly after he started, he suggested I check the drain in the basement, which I did. I was happy to see that yes, the water level did start to drop.
The tank did not seem unusually full, but there really isn’t much that can be seen in this type of tank. Still, he made sure to empty both sides as much as he could. For the new folks following this blog (welcome!), our system is not the typical gravity based septic tank, where all the effluent drains into a single tank. The solids sink to the bottom and the liquid, when it reaches high enough, begins to drain through a one way valve to a septic field some distance from the tank. Under such a system, we would have had to put an insulating cover over the tank itself, then along where the buried line is, and finally a wide area where the field is. That’s the system most people have. Our system is a double tank system. The effluent goes into the first, smaller, tank. The solids sink to the bottom while the liquid eventually drains into the larger overflow tank. That tank has a float that triggers a pump in our basement. The pump then suctions the fluid through a pipe to a septic field that is way out by the barn. That outflow pipe is not buried, but sticks out of the ground, and the fluid is ejected from several feet up.
For the septic guy, that means he has to run his hose into both tanks. Several feet down from the surface, deep enough to hopefully not freeze in winter, there’s a top to the two tanks, with different sized holes for each tank that he has to fit the hose through. There just isn’t much that can be seen
In theory, we shouldn’t have to cover this type of tank for the winter at all, but it would be remarkably unwise to take that chance!
It’s not a common system, and plumbers really don’t like them. :-D However, it does ensure that the septic fluids are nowhere near the house and well.
It also seems to be having all sorts of problems, though some of them would be problems whichever type of system is used.
Like what happened this time, it seems.
After the septic guy was done and the tank was all covered with the insulated tarp again, I quite happily flushed the toilet before heading into the basement.
Only to find the liquid in the drain had increased again. The pipe to the tank was still mostly blocked.
*sigh*
Honestly, I was expecting that to a certain extent, but it would have been nice if it had actually drained properly again.
It was definitely rubber boots and latex gloves time.
The first thing I did was loosen and remove the cap to the access pipe. It, too, had disintegrating toilet paper visible in it.
I’d had previously used the old hose we kept hooked up from the last time we fought with the system and pushed it through the floor drain for quite some distance, though not all the way to the tank. I tried it through the access pipe this time, and still couldn’t get it all the way through.
The other thing we’ve kept handy from before is an old wire chimney sweep. The wire is just the right combination of sturdy and flexible, and we could shove the handle end through the pipes, forcing it through any blockages, even when the pipe was full of roots. So I got the old chimney sweep out and tried to push it through. It was definitely hitting something that didn’t belong! I was able to force it through, and reach all the way to the tank. After I ran that back and forth a few times, I was able to get the hose through the blockage, too. Once I managed that, I finally turned the water on. It didn’t take long, and when whatever was blocking the pipe gave way, I could really tell the difference. Even the sound of the water was completely different. I was able to push the hose all the length of the pipe, until I could hear water splashing into the newly emptied tank.
What a beautiful sound!
After clearing the access pipe out, I moved the hose over to the drain in the floor. I’d already cleared as much of the muck into a garbage can that I could, but it was still pretty… thick. Thankfully, I wasn’t seeing any brown in there! Still, the pipe between the floor drain and the access pipe was pretty stuffed. It made me wonder just how long this had been building up! Especially after I changed directions and ran the hose towards the weeping tile under the new part basement. Yes, things had backed up all the way to there, too!
My main concern with the pipe in that direction was tree roots. Yes, I did find more small tree roots as I was working on it, but not enough to be blocking anything. The blockage was all from the plumbing backing up into it.
So… that took a while, but I finally got water free flowing through the whole thing.
One good thing about having an unfinished basement with a concrete floor is that I can just take a hose to it to clean things up! With the drain clear, the floor got a cleaning before I could finally close everything up again and put things away. The very last thing to do was set up and plug in the blower fan, to help everything dry out faster.
How wonderful it felt to be able to wash up when I was done! Yay, freeflowing water!
For all the work that was involved, it really was just a one person job. Before I’d headed down to start, my older daughter had a proposition for me as their contribution.
Chinese food.
Which I gratefully accepted!
So after getting all cleaned up and changed, we got Chinese food for supper. The handy thing is that it takes the same amount of time for them to prepare an order as it does for us to drive over to pick it up. :-)
We can tackle dishes tomorrow. For today, we’re far more interested in being able to take showers and do laundry!
Meanwhile, there is still the sump pump to deal with. I checked the hose while I was outside. Though cold, the sun on black plastic did seem to make a difference. At least as far as I could tell with the flexible hose. No way to know about the pipe through the wall. When things warm up again, I want to see if I can take the hose off and check the pipe to make sure it really was just ice that was blocking it, and not something else! I don’t want to open it up while things are still cold, and the plastic might crack. Until then, I’m leaving the sump pump unplugged.
What we still don’t really know is, why this happened at all. While clearing the access pipe, which is cast iron, I felt what seemed to be a bottleneck of some sort. Or maybe just a really rough area. There could be damage to the pipe that toilet paper catches on – and once that catches, anything else, whether it’s from the bathroom or the kitchen sink, could start getting hung up on it. We’re forever pulling cat hair out of the drains, so even that could be getting caught, though to be honest, I saw no signs of that.
The only way to know for sure would be to find a plumber that has one of those fibre optic cameras, so we could actually see the problem. And that’s not going to happen, any time soon!
However, it does mean it would probably be a good idea to regularly run that hose through the floor drain and run water through the pipe to clear anything that might be building up, as a regular maintenance thing.
This makes the third time since we’ve moved here that we’ve had septic issues leaving us unable to use our plumbing.
As I write this, it’s coming up on 2pm, and the septic guy has not made it out yet.
I’m happy to say that we did not get any additional flooding in the basement during the night. So far, we can get away with flushing the toilet now and then, and washing our hands, but showers, laundry and doing the dishes are all out. If we do use water, that drain opening in the basement floor does fill a bit, but it’s not overflowing and slowly drains back into the tank again. The septic pump continues to run as usual.
We had a cold night, and the winds were bitterly cold this morning.
It was cold enough to freeze the mud from when the front end loader went through the softer areas. Solid enough that, when I had to drive over it later on, the van didn’t break through the ice at all.
My husband, sweetheart that his is, offered to cover the costs of getting prepared food. His tax return came in yesterday, thankfully. So this morning, I headed into town to pick up a bucket of chicken or something like that, only to find the chicken place wasn’t open yet. In fact, none of the restaurants with take out were open yet. So I went to the grocery store and picked up a bunch of prepared and quick heat foods for the day. The problem right now not being able to do the dishes. We do still have pots and pans to cook with, but nowhere to put dirty dishes anymore.
Note for future: not only do we need an outdoor bathroom in a different location – one that doesn’t collect a lake of meltwater in front of it – but when we build our outdoor kitchen, we need to make sure to have the supplies needed to wash up, then collect and dispose of the dirty water. We do have a few things we can use, if we really get desperate, but they would be quite awkward to work with. Hopefully, it won’t come to that!
After I got back, my daughters took over putting things away and preparing the food while I headed back to the septic tank. I wanted to get the insulated tarp loose, so when the septic guy arrived, he would just need to pull it back and go.
That, of course, turned out to be a much bigger job than anticipated.
We were really, really thorough about making sure that tarp couldn’t get blown away.
I ended up having to dig out the far corner as well, which still had a drift of hard packed snow on top.
I forgot we’d used old fence posts across the fold, to weigh it down.
I finally got it so that the tarp can be pulled back to access the cover. Then I returned it and weighed it down with one of the fence posts, until we need to lift it, since we do still need to keep this area insulated!
It would have been much better if it could have been lifted from the other end, away from the house, but it was easier get the tarp out from under the things weighing it down along the house, and breaking up the snow on it, than trying to chip through that layer of ice.
There is a downspout at the corner of the sun room that we put the rain barrel under. The barrel blocks access into the garden quite a bit, so I’ve been thinking of turning the down spout towards the garden, so that the rain barrel can be put around the corner, instead of on the sidewalk in front of the sun room. If we put a high enough platform under it, we’ll also have room for a tap to fill watering cans from the bottom, too. The diverter we use when the barrel is full currently drains near a rose bush in front of the steps to the laundry platform at the clothes line. If we redirect the down spout, it will instead drain into the old kitchen garden. What I want to do is attach a collapsible overflow pipe to the rain barrel, instead, so we don’t have to worry about using the diverter at all. The whole set up will still be in the way of traffic zones, but not as much as it is now.
Now I’m thinking we need to do the same thing with the downspout on the opposite corner, by the septic tank. The ground slopes downwards to the west, but the downspout runs to the north. If we turn it, yes, it’ll be in the way, since it’ll be running across the path we’ve made along the side of the house, but I’m sure we can work around that. Another rain barrel certainly wouldn’t be a bad idea, either. In fact, we could use three more, just for around the house. We will have to make sure they all have overflow drains. I’d like to have a couple more rain barrels at the garage, too, since we have garden beds that way already, and there will be trees and shrubs planted beyond the garage, too. So we’re looking at at least 5 rain barrels, though if we could get a couple of those big water tanks instead, that would be even better.
One of these days, I need to snag my brother and his trailer, and make a trip to the salvage yard in the city. Along with rain barrels, we want to pick up bricks, blocks and pavers, too.
But that’s something to do in the summer, perhaps. Right now, I just want to be able to take a shower and not flood our basement.
It’s just past 2 am as I start to write this. Normally, I would be going to bed around this time, but I actually went to bed before midnight, for a change.
Before I did, I checked the old basement. Not only was there no increased flooding, but things had actually started to dry up. A good sign. I covered the drain with the plastic sheet that keeps the gases out and went to bed.
Not long ago, I woke to go to the bathroom and heard a strange, quiet rumbling from the basement. It didn’t sound like the well pump, nor the septic pump, neither of which should have been on, anyhow.
It was the sump pump.
The basement was flooded even more than before, the reservoir had filled, the pump was running so long, it was sounding wrong, but the reservoir wasn’t draining.
I threw on some boots and a coat and ran outside with the flashlight. There was nothing coming out of the sump pump hose in the old kitchen garden. I yanked it out from along the house, and it was flexible the entire length. I finally found the blockage, right by where it attached to the pipe from the basement.
I was able to flex the hose and could hear ice breaking up inside, but that did nothing for the rigid bit of pipe through the wall.
So back to the basement I ran, this time with a couple of large buckets. I had to unplug the sump pump, which had been running so long, it was hot.
By this time, my noise had awakened the rest of the family. Even my husband could hear me over the sound of his CPAP.
The girls came down to help. I used the small bucket with a wire on its handle that we used the last time this happened, and a broom handle it sink it, and started bailing water into a large bucket. That went to one daughter, who took it up the stairs. My other daughter took that outside to empty it, while I filled the next bucket.
That reservoir holds a remarkable amount of water.
After many trips, we got the reservoir bailed out as much as could be done with the small bucket.
Once that was clear, I checked the drain in the floor. It had disintegrating toilet paper in it, but not more than before, from what I could tell. I was going to hose that away after the septic tank was done.
The first time we had septic problems in the basement, that my brother and I worked on, we hooked an old hose to what used to be the cold water tap for the washing machine and used it to try and clear the pipes. The last time, when the plumber came with his drain auger, it came in very handy, so I’ve just left it there, with most of the hose rolled up and hanging. I pushed the end of it through the drain, and could get quite far. There is no blockage, that I could feel.
Once the drain cover was off, I could see water from the floor starting to slowly drain away.
Grabbing a long handled scrub brush, I tried to clear the drain opening, and it didn’t seem to make much difference in how quickly things drained.
What concerned me was that I started pulling up thin tree roots. That’s what the plumber had cleared out if there, not that many months ago.
After the tank is emptied, I should be able to run water through the drain in the floor and be able to see better. I’ll also open up the access pipe, near the septic pump, and take a better look, but that requires tools.
The drain cover has been left off. The sump pump remains unplugged. We will have to keep checking the basement more often, and if it starts filling again, start bailing it out again.
My daughter’s and I, meanwhile, have scrubbed up, though we still feel really gross. It’s not like we can take showers right now, though at least we can flush the toilet and wash up.
Now we have to get some more sleep while we can.
I’m not sure I’ll be able to fall asleep anytime soon, which is why I am sitting here, tapping out a blog post on my phone.
I honestly didn’t expect to see a front end loader at our place until much later today. So it was a surprise when, as I was making supper, started hearing the distinctive beeping down of heavy equipment backing up.
A glace out the window, and there was a front end load, starting to clear our driveway. !!
So I ran outside to talk to the driver, and show him where I needed clearing. We walked around the yard a bit as I showed him where the septic truck needed to back up to, and mentioned the warning I got, if the loader started sinking.
He also absolutely refused payment!
These folks are the best. I look forward to being able to do something for them, some day!
There turned out to be one area of concern, but it wasn’t in the yard.
It looks like, as soon as he drove through and the tires sank in the mud, all the water that had been in the paths just drained into it!
There is now a nice clear lane for the septic truck to back into.
Where the septic truck needs to stop was quite solid. The snow tends to get blown away from that area, so it’s not as deep, allowing the ground to freeze harder.
If this pile of snow seems a bit small for the amount that needed to be cleared, it is!
There were three other areas he pushed snow into, first. The path to the compost pile is mostly clear, though!
You can see another wet, muddy spot as well, but the wheels didn’t sink.
I’ve called the septic guy back and he hopes to be able to get here by about noon, tomorrow.
Now, we just need things to stay nice and cold overnight.
The Re-Farmer 