Today, I went back to finish up that last corner of the basement section I was working on yesterday. Altogether, I only put in an hour, and the rest will have to wait.
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Iced
With the warmer weather we’ve been having, I noticed something about the ice that had build up on the bird bath. The warmed concrete had melted the ice touching it, and a gap had formed.
I took advantage of that.
Instead of cutting a bowl into the ice for water, I was able to chop away the build up of ice, without damaging the bird bath itself.
Once the edges were clear, the middle part came out in very satisfying chunks!
I cleared enough that the brick could be used by the smaller birds to reach the water.
Another sign of spring on the way!
:-)
The Re-Farmer
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Clean Up: old basement. The things we find!
There were so many things I found while clearing the corner of the basement that, though I didn’t even get pictures of all of them, I had to give them their own post!
I really, really wonder about some of the stuff I uncovered!
Let’s get started!
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Clean up: old basement. It begins!
Photo heavy post ahead! :-)
Today, I started cleaning up in the old part basement. Since I would have to move things to clean under them anyhow, I decided it was time to finally do the proper clean up I was intending to do, later in the year.
I started in the half of the basement near the septic pump, since that’s where the biggest mess was. Slowly, I’ll work my way over to the other half, where the tanks, well- and sump-pumps are, as well as the space that used to hold firewood. There are now two broken hot water tanks stored on that side, so while there’s less there to clean up, it’s got the big stuff.
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Planning ahead
There is a project we’ve started talking about, potentially to do this coming summer. I wasn’t going to bring it up here on the blog yet, because I know how quickly plans can change. After our latest escapade with the septic troubles, however, we’re extra motivated to get it done, as quickly as possible.
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On Ice
Oh, what a gorgeous day it has been, today! Warm enough that, after dropping my daughter off at work, I went and parked by the beach and actually went walking.
The lake and beach were very busy. There is an ice structure on the beach right now, and many people drive right up on the frozen sand to take pictures.
Why, I’m not sure, since the parking lot is, like, right there.
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It’s finally done!
I am thrilled to say, the problem with our septic has been dealt with AND the pump itself still works! We’re still not sure why it stopped pumping completely. More on that later.
The whole job was much, much bigger than we expected.
Also, my brother is a saint. God bless him! I don’t know how we would have managed without his help!
Let’s back up a bit.
This is what we had to work with.
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Morning progress
We’ve had a bit of progress regarding our septic pump problems so far.
This morning, bathing involved using basins, then tossing the water outside. Meanwhile, I did my rounds, as usual.
Check this out.
See that dark spot in the middle of the bird bath?
That’s water that isn’t frozen! :-D
Some of the water that got into the basement drained into the sump pump reservoir enough to trigger it. Which means that, outside, there’s a melted patch in the snow.
The cats like it.
Beep Beep tucked herself right in there, and Two-Face came over to investigate. Beep Beep didn’t like that!
Who won?
Two-Face won! :-D
I also called the septic company again. While talking to the guy, he asked where we were, including our driveway marker number.
I drew a complete blank. I couldn’t remember our own driveway marker number! I could sort of remember it, but not really…
Only later, when driving past it and looking, did I realize I had the numbers reversed. The cross road number is at the beginning, not the end.
Still, he had no problem finding us. He’s been here a few times before. I had time to drive my daughter to work, get some cash to pay him, and even start shoveling a bit before he arrived. Thankfully, that big, heavy truck can go through pretty deep snow without getting stuck, though I did shovel a couple of paths while I was there.
While he was pumping out the tank, I talked to him about what was happening. He could see no problems off hand. I even remembered to ask about the float, since one possibility is that the float was stuck, but it was working fine.
So that is all done.
I later went into the basement, which is drying quite nicely right now. One of the things I noticed last night was that the old laundry sink was full of water, so I made a point of checking it.
Sure enough, it was slowly draining.
Gosh, that’s disgusting.
Now, with the tank empty, we actually need to get water in there for the weight. While I was downstairs, my husband flushed the toilet – and I saw water burbling up into the sink!
Nothing came out of that pipe, though.
So what it looks like is that water first started backing up into this sink, while the laundry was being done. Then, when it filled to a certain point, it started backing up out of the pipe, instead.
If there is a clog causing this, it’s somewhere near the pump.
But why would a clog in the pipe cause the pump to stop working? It gets triggered by the float outside.
I don’t know, but when my brother gets here to replace the well pump, we’ll be able to look more closely.
Fingers crossed, it’s just a relatively minor fix that we can take care of ourselves!
The Re-Farmer
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Seriously???
This evening, I got a call from my brother, saying he would be coming over tomorrow to install the new well pump he found for us. Yay! He would need to pick something up along the way, though, and could I get measurements of the pipes for him?
So I went into the basement to see if I could get that for him and…
There was water, all over half the basement.
WTF?
The side of the basement where the laundry used to be has a drain in the floor, but it was covered over with plastic, so I took that out and water started to slowly drain into there. Unfortunately, there was also mostly dissolved toilet paper in the water (no solids, thankfully), and I didn’t want that getting in there. So we had to be careful.
Where, however, did the water come from?
Here.
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This and that, and the car saga continues
What a beautiful day today!
As I write this, we’re at -1C (30F) right now. The sun is shining, the skies are clear, and we’re supposed to be warm like this for the next couple of days. On Sunday, we’re even supposed to go above freezing! From the long range forecasts, we are going to get chilly again, but none of the deep freeze we’ve had for the last while. Spring is in the air!
It definitely makes doing my morning rounds much more pleasant.
Things have not been pleasant for all, though, as I noticed when I saw Big Jim walking around this morning.
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The Re-Farmer 