Okay, so I FINALLY was able to work on that drain pipe from the kitchen and laundry that keeps clogging. It’s been open enough to do dishes, but from the sounds I keep hearing from the laundry drain, it seemed to be closing up again. I’d already used the snake a couple of times before, and now have the pipe cleaning brush. I just needed a time when no one used, or needed to use, the kitchen sink for a long time.
A really long time, it turned out.
So I got the coupling access the plumber had put in open, and the first thing to do was to use the plumbing snake. Sure enough, about 6 feet in, I hit a bottleneck. I punched through it, and could feel another one a short distance past it, and punched through that. I ran the drain snake through far enough that I could tell I’d gone past the bend under the bathroom and was starting to down the pipe towards the septic tank.
Then I tried the brush.
*sigh*
I got the longest one I could find, which was just barely long enough to poke at the bottleneck. I’d pull it back and could see gunk stuck to the bristles. I’d prepared a bucket of hot soapy water for this, so I’d rinse it off and do it again, but I just couldn’t reach far enough to be effective. The coil would have been too flexible for anything longer, though.
I used the drain snake again and, from the gunk stuck to it when I pulled it out, it was doing something, but it just wasn’t enough. I needed something longer, with some flexibility, but strong enough to punch through that bottleneck.
Which is when I remembered we had a length of Pex pipe left from replacing some of the copper pipes to the tub and shower.
I was getting a lot of this mud-like gunk out with it. That pipe had a thick layer coating the inside of it.
The Pex pipe had a bit of a curve to it and even that helped, as it allowed me to twist it around and scrape the inside of the drain pipe.
There was so much of this gunk coming out.
At about 10 feet, however, the pipe still wasn’t long enough.
Finally, I broke out the commercial drain auger. There was nowhere to plug it in, and this is not something to use an extension cord with, but I figured I could still use it manually. I used the spiral bulb tip that was already mounted on it, which is basically a much larger version of what the small drain snake’s tip is. It also has cutter and spade tips, but those weren’t going to do much, manually.
It worked out surprisingly well.
I reached that bottleneck and had to work at punching the larger bulb tip through. It seems like something hard is coating the inside of the pipe, there. Thinking about where that would be on the other side of the wall, it might be ice. It’s pretty close to where the old basement window is. The second bottleneck is close enough to basically be on the other side of that window, so it might be more ice. Or, should I say, frozen gunk.
We might need to look at getting insulation around the pipe in that area, and see if it makes a difference.
Anyhow.
I ran the auger through until I hit what felt like a wall. After much manipulating, I managed to get past it, and could keep going, but when I pulled it out, cleaned off the mess, and did it again, I hit the same block.
After a couple of times, when I hit the block again, I grabbed the coil right at the pipe, pulled it out completely, then laid it on the floor. I then walked along from where my hand had gripped it, using my feet to measure the distance. It was about 12′ to the end.
I then went into the old basement and, taking into account the length of pipe from the root cellar to the old basement, walked the distance along the wall the pipe runs over.
It turns out I was hitting the bend in the pipe, under the bathtub.
After wiping down the coil and bit (again), then using it in the pipe a couple more times, I finally decided it was enough. By this time, I’d spent about an hour working on it. I could have kept running the auger through and kept dragging out more gunk, but I think I got enough of it out for now.
The pipe ends needed a thorough wipe down before I slide the coupling back over the opening and tighten it down. Then I got someone upstairs to run water in the kitchen sink while I watched to make sure nothing was leaking.
Then it was clean up time.
I so appreciate that old laundry sink the the old basement!
I got the small drain snake cleaned up first, then set the auger’s coil to soak in hot soapy water – about 15 feet of it! – while I did what I could to clean the length of PEX pipe. The end was completely clogged and I couldn’t get it completely clear, but clear enough. That pipe is now stored elsewhere, since we can no longer use it for plumbing. It will be very handy again, I’m sure!
The commercial drain auger’s coil took a lot more effort to get clean, and I know I didn’t get everything off, but it’s no longer completely coated in gunk. I’ve got the coils for both the drain snake and auger coil laid out on the new basement floor to dry now, so they won’t rust when they’re coiled back into their drums.
By the time all that was done, I was feeling thoroughly disgusting. At least I had gloves to protect my hands, but I still got splattered and splashed, no matter how careful I was.
It felt so good to get showered and changed!!
For the next while, we’re going to have to make extra effort to do that maintenance flush the plumber recommended; filling a sink full of hot water, then draining it while squeezing some Dawn dish detergent into the vortex that forms at the drain. We also have some of the enzyme stuff left for weekly treatments, though we might do it twice a week for about a month.
I’ll need to do laundry but, for now, I will still run the drain hose out the front door. I want to make super sure that pipe is open enough for the water to drain through without backing up and flooding the entryway.
Again.
The washing machine simply drained too fast for the water to get through that gunk coated pipe.
When we first moved out here, my brother had moved the washer and drier from the basement to the entry for us, taking advantage of plumbing that was already there (there used to be a sink installed there). When we did laundry, we always used cold water. Partly because of the troubles we had with the hot water tank, but also to save on electricity. Thinking about it now, this probably contributed to the problem. The kitchen sink is the only other thing on this line. Any hot water from there wouldn’t have been enough to make up for all the ice cold water solidifying the gunk lining the inside of the pipe.
That’s my theory, anyhow.
So we’ll be making a point of getting as much hot or boiling water running down that pipe over the next while, with dish detergent as often as possible. If I can still hear water gurgling through and sounding like it’s backing up, I’ll have to open things up and run the auger through again a few times. Only when we’re sure things are flowing well enough will we try a load of laundry.
Starting with the hot water “tub clean” setting, first!
It will be so nice to not have to run a hose through the storm door window anymore. Especially with the inner door no longer closing properly!
Which we’ll be doing as soon as my daughter is done with the dishes.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to give my boots a thorough cleaning…
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!
The important thing is, we can use our kitchen sink and laundry drain again! Yay!
We couldn’t wait until today to do our laundry, though, so yesterday we did something like four loads of laundry, with the hose draining out the door. The furthest end of the sump pump hose we’re using curls, preventing it from draining completely, so I kept going outside to lift the hose, from the door to the end, to get it empty before it froze.
This morning, we were expecting the plumber to arrive first, then a prescription delivery, hopefully before my daughter and I had to head out. My daughter had started her shower just as I was about to start heading outside for my morning rounds and to open the gate, when I heard a strange noise.
The septic pump had finally been triggered!
So I immediately dashed downstairs to check the filter.
Which was empty and running dry.
I shut the pump off, opened the filter, primed it again and turned the pump back on. It worked great! When it was done, the filter stayed full enough that the filter basket inside was floating and spinning slightly in the water – something I haven’t seen it do in quite a while!
From there, it was outside to feed and water the kitties, then do my usual checks, which this time included checking the outflow pipe. Everything looked clear, and there was no sign of backflow towards the house.
Yay!!!!
While doing my rounds, I got the truck running for a while, then popped in the OBDII scanner. The check engine light was on and the oil pressure gauge was still at zero. I did a full scan and got the same code as before: the oil pressure sensor that has already been replaced and cleaned.
At least it’s just triggering a check engine light, and not setting off the flipping alarm with the “turn off engine” warning.
From there, I cleared the codes and left the engine running until it shut itself off, as I’d used the remote starter to turn it on. Though it is much warmer today, I still plugged the block heater back in.
With our trip to the doctor’s office, though, I planned to use my brother’s car, which is parked and plugged in, outside. We had a bit of snow last night that needed to be brushed off, but that’s it.
Not long after I was back inside and checking the trail cam files, I got a call from the plumber. He was on his way and wanted to confirm directions to our place.
They can be a bit difficult to explain at times.
They got here soon after. Since the entry is where the laundry drain is, with the kitchen sink on the other side of the wall, I explained a what was going on there, then we went into the basement where I could show him the rest.
After looking over the pipes in old and new basements, as well as the plumbing under the sink, he decided to find a better way than trying to run his auger through where the last guy did. Access there is not easy, and it was put back together with adhesive. He didn’t want to cut anything there.
Since we knew the clog started past the laundry drain, he did it another way. He cut away part of the pipe in the root cellar, on the kitchen side of where the laundry pipe joined (not that he could have cut it on the other side, since it goes into a wall, there) and removed a couple of inches. It would then get sealed up with a rubber union and steel clamps, so that it would be easy to access, if we ever needed to have this done again. In fact, with our big drain auger, we’d be able to do it ourselves.
I don’t feel so bad about not trying to open things up where the other plumber went through now.
He used his smaller powered auger on the drain, and he really felt it when he hit the clog. After he worked on it for a while, with his assistant holding the other end of the pipe out of the way, he had his assistant go into the other basement to see if he could tell if the auger had reached the corner under the bathroom. I went along with him.
Not only had he reached the corner, but I could hear the tip of the auger rattling in the pipe near the old basement steps. He’d gone through the turn and was about 2/3s of the way down the other pipe to the septic tank.
After clearing things out, he sealed up the pipe, then headed for the kitchen to flush it. This will be our regular maintenance routine. He filled one of the kitchen sinks with straight hot water. After pulling the plug, he squirted some dish detergent into the vortex as it drained.
Then he did it again, with the other sink.
The first time, we could hear a lot of gurgling from the laundry drain pipe. A certain amount of that is normal, as we would be hearing the water pass by where it joined the main pipe. The second time he did it, we heard almost nothing from the laundry drain.
The assistant, meanwhile, was in the basement, making sure the new rubber union wasn’t leaking, and listening along the pipes. They couldn’t hear each other, so I went down and found him following the sound into the old basement. He could hear the water sloshing through the whole way.
I think the sinks were both filled and drained a total of three times each before he was satisfied.
I told him about what we’d found under the sink, and that my daughter had replaced everything but the trap, so he kept an eye on that, too. There were no leaks anywhere, so that was installed just fine.
While all this was going on, we chatted a fair bit. For some things, I explain the history of the plumbing, so far as I knew it. I even showed him our drain auger, and he quite approved. He let me know that, if we ever needed it, he does have a larger one. Hopefully, we never will!
He was one of the plumbers I have been talking to about the ejector, so while following the pipes, I showed him the diverter set up – and that the pump was triggered for the first time since the tank was emptied, just this morning. He was the one that has suggesting setting up an ice fishing tent over it with a heater, but we don’t even know someone we can borrow one from. He also suggested putting straw bales around the ejector, but we don’t have straw bales, either. We did get get straw, it was one of the big round bales, not the small square ones.
Oh, that reminds me…
While talking to the plumbing guy at the hardware store yesterday, we talked about the ejector and how to thaw it. He’s on an ejector system himself and said, this sometimes happen. I told him, it’s been some 50 years, and it’s never frozen before, so why now? He said it could be a few things and started listing some off. The only one I remember was when he said the ground could be saturated.
*dingdingding*
When they excavated down to the pipe to install the ejector, it was full of water. I even asked one of the guys if that was from the leaking old ejector, or if the water table was high. He told me it would be from the leaking ejector.
Which means the ground at the based of the new ejector was indeed saturated. Which would not have been a problem if this was done in the spring or summer. With nothing leaking anymore, it would have eventually drained away. The soil is clay heavy, so it might have taken a while, but it would eventually have dried up.
The ejector, however, was installed in… November? We were lucky not to have snow, which we did get, not long after.
Which means the water the drained to the bottom of the 4″ stack pipe had nowhere to go, and just kept building up and up, until it froze.
So… that rather eliminates any chance of us being able to use the ejector again until spring. The ground is already frozen, so even if we insulated around it, it wouldn’t make a difference.
*sigh*
We’ll figure it out.
The main thing is, we can now use our kitchen sink again!!!
In asking him why it would clog again so quickly after we’d already had it cleared just a couple of years ago, he said that having the laundry and kitchen drain into the main pipe so close together was not really an ideal situation. Between any grease from washing the dishes, to lint and such from the laundry, things build up pretty fast.
I’d been concerned about the pipe that didn’t get cleared, from the bathroom towards the septic. That, however, turns out not to be an issue at all. With all the water from showers and washing – even the toilet flushing – it would have kept that section of pipe pretty clear. There’s a lot less water running through from the kitchen to under the bathroom – and even less, when we started running the laundry drain outside. As the greasy water from the sink swirls its way down the pipe, the gunk would build up faster. Which is why flushing the drain with sink-fulls of hot water and detergent (he suggested using Dawn, as it is the best for grease cutting) regularly is recommended.
I asked him about using the bacteria and enzyme drain maintenance stuff, and he couldn’t really answer, as he doesn’t know much about it.
I also asked him about the possibility of the pipe from the house to the ejector getting clogged, and he said that was highly unlikely.
On top of all the other stuff we talked about, I mentioned that we want to replace the well pump, but there’s a risk of the foot valve breaking apart, so no one wanted to take the chance.
He pffffttt’d to that and said, just put in a check valve. No one really does foot valves anymore.
???
I’ve had three different plumbers look at that well pump. No one mentioned a check valve, so I asked him about it. He looked some up on his phone and found the style that would be used on our pump. He told me, just install that on the pump at the intake from the well, and don’t worry about the foot valve. Even if it breaks up, we’ll still get water.
I asked him, is this something that is new within the past few years?
Nope. They’ve been around for a while.
So now I wonder, why hasn’t any other plumber mentioned it??
Then, since we were walking around the three broken hot water tanks while looking around the basement, I told him about replacing the elements on the hot water tank recently, and what we found on the bottom. He told me, we need a water softening system to put a stop to that.
*sigh*
That’s something my husband has suggested, but a whole house system? That’s really expensive, and do we really want that for the entire house?
As to the cost, he was able to tell me that it’s $2500, installed, if he does it. He didn’t try to sell me on it; just let me know.
So all of that went fairly quickly. Before he left, I gave him my email address for him to send me the bill, so I still don’t know how much it will cost. I should get it tonight some time, but he told me that if I don’t, check my spam folder! That’s been happening a lot, lately, he told me.
That done, we can finally hook up the washing machine’s hose back to the drain pipe, but we haven’t done that, yet. Priority is catching up on dishes!
I wanted to head out early with my daughter for our appointment, but we still had the prescription delivery that I wanted to wait for first, so we could lock the gate behind us when we left. Not too long after the plumber left, someone used the washroom, and I heard the septic pump go off again. No surprise, considering how much hot water got flushed through the pipes!
I went down to check and…
It was running dry again.
I shut it off and primed the filter – the seal on that lid was quite tight – turned it on and it was working fine again. So fine, in fact, that it took only 2, maybe 2 1/2 minutes to drain the tank!
Hopefully, you won’t have to go to Instagram to wash this.
The moisture underneath is from the water used to prime the filter.
When it was done, the filter stayed nice and full. I paused to update my brother on it (I’d been keeping him up to date with the plumber the whole time, too). As I was doing that, I heard a strange noise from the filter.
You might need to turn up your volume to hear it. Somehow, there was air getting in.
I grabbed some paper towel and dried up everything around the filter and pipe joins, then watched and waited before checking them again. Everything was dry. There is no leak.
So what is happening???
One of the things I did a while back was put a brick and a very thin piece of Styrofoam under the filter to support the weight of the water in it. I ended up finding another thin piece to raise it up just a bit higher, so there is now no sag or play at all. I primed the filter again, and that bubbling did not happen again.
Were were good? I don’t know. But I did pass that on to my brother, too!
Not long after, the prescription delivery guy arrived, and my daughter and I were soon headed out to our appointments (after having to chase a kitten out from under my brother’s car!). We left early, making a brief stop in my mother’s town to pick up some lunch at the gas station – they had chicken kabobs available this time, which my daughter loves. Those sell out really fast, and they don’t seem to make more of them throughout the day. By the time we got to the clinic, we were only about 15 minutes early, so I’m glad we headed out when we did.
I went in first for my meet and greet. Her first question was whether or not I already had a doctor, and I explained about my previous doctor moving to another clinic, and having an interim doctor now. I’m sure she’d be fine to keep seeing me, but it’s just more convenient to have the same doctor as my daughter.
So this was mostly a question and answer session and I explained some of the issues I’ve been having, and she is now officially my doctor, too. I mentioned my painkillers just aren’t cutting it anymore, especially since I had to switch to acetaminophen. So I did get a prescription pain killer. I’d mentioned how bad the joint pain can get some days, where every joint in my body hurts. She asked me what supplements I was one, and I told her. She then recommended I go on a B complex instead of the B12 I’m on, as one of the other B vitamins should help me with the joint pain. She also told me to take double the recommended dose. I mentioned the Charlie horses I’ve been getting, but I have also run out of zinc, and suggested picking that up might take care of that, and she said yes. (I’ve also increased my salt intake, before I ran out of zinc, and that’s when the Charlie horses seemed to stop until just recently)
So once I was done, I went across the hall to the pharmacy to pick up the supplements while my daughter was seen next. Then I went to the grocery store that shared the parking lot and picked up a couple of small things we’d run out of at home. From there, I waited in the car for my daughter.
Which is when I got a test from my husband. He’s just picked up a call from the pharmacy for me. They’d received my prescription, and did I want to get it filled right away?
Talk about fast!
Of course, my husband had no idea what they were talking about, yet! So I called the pharmacy and said to go ahead and fill it, and that I’d likely pick it up tomorrow, since I was still in another town.
Then I got a message from my daughter clearing a calendar date in three weeks for another follow up appointment. So that was done, too.
My daughter got some adjusted medications and another prescription. Her bloodwork showed her to be vitamin D deficient. I wasn’t surprised by that. This is Canada, and it’s winter, after all! She has also been referred to an endocrinologist for her PCOS.
So tomorrow, we’ll both go into town to pick up our prescriptions.
This time, I plan to use the truck.
From there, we started for home. Along the way, we stopped in my mother’s town so I could go to a branch of my bank and take out cash, then we stopped at the home of the guy who empties our septic tank to pay our bill. With tip!
We made one more stop on the way back, at the post office. I wasn’t expecting any parcels yet, but there were a couple for my husband and some regular mail. The letter mail I’ve been waiting for since the strike delayed it, still isn’t in, though. This is getting ridiculous.
After that, we could finally head home. I’m sure glad for the longer days, as it wasn’t full dark, yet!
The first thing I did once we brought everything inside was do the evening cat feeding. My husband had let me know my mother had called (he does not answer calls from her), once I was settled, I checked her message. Apparently, when they delivered her new bubble packs, they didn’t deliver her inhaler. So I called her back and she told me her adjusted dose bubble packs were delivered, but there was no puffer. She then started going on about how it was a guy who delivered it this time, and she didn’t recognize him, etc. So I asked if she called the pharmacy to ask why it wasn’t there, and she said no, then tried to go back to talking about the delivery guy. I told her, she needed to call the pharmacy right away.
Which is when she asked if I could do it, because her English isn’t so good.
Ah. Okay!
Then she gave me the number, so I didn’t have to look it up.
The thing is, my mother’s doctor’s appointment was on Monday. Her prescriptions were delivered on Tuesday. Today is Thursday. Why didn’t she say anything on Tuesday??
So I called the pharmacy and quickly realized why my mother didn’t want to call herself. They have an automated answering service, which she has a hard time with at the best of times. With this one, after I made the first selection (after having to listen to a promo for vaccines first), it put me through another spiel for other choices. When I selected one of those, which turned out to be the wrong one. It took me to another and, as I was going through that, it started asking for things like the prescription number. WTF??? It did give the option to go back to a previous menus, and the net thing I knew, I was listening to the vaccine promo again.
I finally got to a real, live pharmacist.
They know be my now. 😄
When I explained what my mother had told me, the pharmacist said it was there. She’d put it in the bag herself.
I told her, my mother said it wasn’t, and she suggested it might be on the bottom of the bag, and described the box to me. It’s purple, so it would be easy to see!
I called my mother back and explained it should be in the bag with her bubble packs.
Oh! Let me go check.
It was there.
My mother had never looked in the bag. She had expected the delivery person to hand it to her seperately.
My mother was supposed to start her new bubble packs immediately, setting the current one aside, to be taken back to the pharmacy, so they could update the dose on one of her meds for her.
I didn’t get a chance to ask, but it sounds like she just kept using the same bubble pack instead of switching to the ones with the correct dosage in it.
*sigh*
I let her go, though, so she could go over the instructions for the inhaler.
I’m starting to wonder if she’s up to even using one.
Something I will have to follow up on.
Meanwhile…
This evening, I heard the septic pump go off again, so I went down to check. The filter was empty again! This time, however, I could see there was a very slow flow was water going in. It wasn’t running quite dry, but the flow from the tank was barely more than a splash. I stopped it and primed the filter again (it was tightly sealed), and it ran great after that. When it stopped, the filter was still full of water, and no sign of bubbles to show if there was some sort of air leak.
If this thing needs to be primed every time the pump goes off, that’s going to be a problem. I’m the only one that can hear it go off, and the camera I got to monitor it is going to be returned tomorrow, because it won’t connect to our WiFi.
This is incredibly frustrating.
If there is anyone more knowledgeable than me reading this and has some idea of what’s going on, please let me know! I’m running out of ideas.
As for me, I am done with this day.
I am so glad the plumber could come in this morning, and that we got that clog cleared. We learned a lot from him while he was here, too, and have steps to take to keep it from happening again – or at least keep it from happening again too soon!
I’m happy to learn about the check valve that would allow us to get that well pump changed and not worry about the foot valve.
I’m glad to finally and officially have a new doctor, and that my daughter got that referral to an endocrinologist, though it will likely take months before she actually sees one.
I’m glad the emergency diverter is working, even with the flow problems.
I’m thankful to have my brother’s car to drive today, even though it would have been just fine using the truck. I’m just paranoid about the truck. We need to get their car back to them soon.
I’m thankful for my other daughter’s financial help that paid for the septic guy, and is helping to pay for the plumber, too.
I may be done with this day, but it really was a very good day!
I did get one thing planned accomplished. While doing my morning rounds, I used the foil insulation in strategic points on the outflow pipe for our emergency septic diverter. The pump has still not been triggered to empty the grey water, so this will ensure any contact point with cold supports will not freeze.
Hopefully. At least, if it does freeze there, it would be much easier to deal with it.
Once my morning rounds were done and breakfast was had, my plan was to head outside and start searching for something we could use to shelter the frozen septic ejector.
Then one of my daughters came over to let me know the kitchen sink was clogged. They’d started doing dishes, and the skinks would not drain. They did eventually empty, but very, very slowly.
My younger daughter – the only one able bodied enough to do this – cleared things stored under the sink to check the pipes.
Note the big crack in the brass fitting above the trap.
There was no way to take the trap off to clear the clog (drain cleaner did not work) without the brass breaking even worse.
Which meant a trip into town to get replacement parts.
That left me in a bit of a conundrum. The truck’s sensor issues are still a problem. I’d been idling the engine to get it to warm up and evaporate the moisture that is triggering the sensor, but the truck really needs to be driven. But the oil pressure gauge is at 0, and that check engine light was back on after I’d cleared the codes, yesterday. I could have taken my brother’s car, but he’s going to need that back, and this sensor thing isn’t going to go away if I don’t actually drive the truck.
But we’ve had so many things got wrong, I was really uncomfortable doing it. The truck had started fine, the engine is running smoothly, and the oil levels are good.
I ended up texting our mechanic and asked him is he was sure it was safe to drive – and to please humour my paranoia! 😄 He said yes.
I had wanted to go into town anyhow, to refill our water jugs, so I grabbed those and headed out, with a brief stop at the post office along the way. The letter mail I am waiting for still isn’t in, but a couple of packages made it, so that was good, at least.
The truck ran fine the entire trip, too.
Once at the hardware store, I got to talk to my favourite person in the plumbing department. He’s been helping me a lot!
After showing him the pictures, he gave me the parts and pieces to replace the brass T, making sure to get me the correct adhesive and explaining about putting it all together dry, first, then taking it apart to use the adhesive. We were pretty sure of the size needed, but if we were wrong, I could return the parts and get the right size.
From there, I made a quick stop at the grocery store to refill the water jugs, grab some pumpernickel bread, as the rye was gone, and ended up getting some lactose free cheese for the girls that was on sale.
When I got back, my daughter set about taking out the brass T – which turned out to have a lot more damage than was visible – then removing the trap to clear the clog.
It got rather messy.
Along with the parts and pieces, I picked up a drain clearer -, I don’t remember the proper name for it, but it’s a long flexible wire with a plastic scrubby tuft at the end. I also picked up a sink plunger. My daughter took everything apart and used the drain clearer on the pipes for as far as she could reach with it.
That got messy, too!
Then she put the trap back and moved on to putting together the new T pieces and do a dry install to make sure everything fit.
They didn’t.
It fit at the top, directly to one sink, and the bottom, to the trap. It was the pipe to the other sink that was the problem. The brass T’s fitting was almost flush, as you can see in the above photo. The new T’s fittings extended further. There wasn’t enough play in the pipe to be able to attach the T to the copper pipe.
That bit of copper pipe, meanwhile, was basically jammed into a length of PVC pipe, likely with the use of a heat gun. My daughter hoped to push it further in, just half an inch, but it just would not move.
Which meant cutting the copper pipe.
The 1 1/2″ copper pipe.
We don’t have a pipe cutter to do it. We could have used a hack saw, but the very idea of trying to cut a pipe in a crowded space – on that wiggles around, at that – was not acceptable.
Time to go back into town.
While my daughter was fighting with the new T, I had taken the time to clean the threads on the trap and was thinking it would probably be a good idea to get a new one. Just in case.
So, off to town I went!
By this time, several hours had passed, so my husband requested I make another stop at the grocery store for some heat and eats. No one was going to be making a from-scratch meal, today, that’s for sure!
I also brought along the brass T to show the guy at the hardware store. When I got there, it turned out he’d stepped out for something. I waited a while, looking at things and, after clearing it with my husband first (since it was coming off his personal budget), I picked up an indoor/outdoor security camera that screws into a light bulb socket, and has an LED light built in as well. This would go in the light socket near the septic pump, so we could monitor it without having to go up and down those insane stairs all the time! It used WiFi and an app to control and monitor it, and had a slot for a micro SD card. We have a couple of those handy!
They didn’t know when the plumbing guy would be back, so after I got the security camera, I went to the grocery store. It turned out to be really busy, and I found out why when I was asked if I wanted to collect extra points, or get 10% off.
I took the 10% off.
The plumbing guy was there by the time I got back. I showed him the brass part, and then pictures of my daughter holding the new T that couldn’t join the copper pipe.
After seeing more of the photos and how the copper pipe was installed, he was rather taken aback. That’s a pretty big no-no, and he was trying to figure out what was holding it in place. I told him, probably just friction. Why wasn’t it leaking? he wondered. I told him, that thing is NOT moving. It is completely water tight, and likely inserted with the use of a heat gun.
One thing was sure, though. I was not going to find a pipe cutter for a pipe that size. If we wanted to shorten it, we’d need to use a hacksaw.
He asked more questions about where the pipe with the copper piece led to, and I told him is was to the second sink.
Well, that gave us a solution.
He showed me a kit for plumbing a double sink. All the parts and pieces I would need, plus a few extras that wouldn’t be needed for our particular set up. He even took it out of the package and assembled it for me, how it would go under the sinks.
I talked to him about the trap, as I’d been looking at one that had a clean out opening. He agreed that would be the best. The only potential issue was the elbow part of it that joined the outflow pipe to the main drain. That part is sealed with adhesive. The U part of the trap screws onto that part and, in theory, we could remove the take off the new elbow and screw the U part onto the existing elbow, but with how old these parts are, the threads might not be the same. If they weren’t, we’d have to cut off the elbow and adhere the new one; there should be enough play in the pipe to handle losing that half inch or so.
There was a fitting that would be needed that I already had, with the parts and pieces of the new T we would no longer need, but I went ahead and bought another one. Having extra parts is always good!
This guy is such a help! It’s great to have staff that knows their stuff so well.
From there, it was home again. By this time, my poor daughter was really struggling. She may be the most able bodied of us all, but she does have other issues! Her PCOS really does a number on her joints, and she was losing her ability to use one wrist. I had suggested taking a break to have food, but since the dishes hadn’t been done, due to the sink being clogged, things to use to cook with were unavailable.
Plus, she just wanted to get it over with!
So I left her to it for a while, after bringing her what she would need to trim the length of pipe between the sinks to the right side, then started setting up the new camera before heading to the basement.
Long story short, I will probably be returning it. It simply will not connect to our WiFi.
*sigh*
It’s possible it might work somewhere not in the basement, but I bought it specifically so I could monitor the septic pump and area, so there’s no point in keeping it if I can’t use it there. There is nowhere else we would want to set up a camera that works by screwing into a light fixture.
Meanwhile, my daughter finally got to the point where we could test the sinks and see if anything was leaking.
Since we’ve moved here, we’ve replaced both sink drains, and installed the flexible water pipes with build in shut off valves, replacing copper pipes with no shut off valves. Now, we’ve replaced the rest of the pipes under the sinks, up to, but not including the trap.
At some point, my daughter used the sink plunger. Apparently, it did an amazing job in clearing crud out.
As we were cleaning up and putting things away – it was full dark by this time – my daughter realized she was hearing splashing noises.
That test we did to see if there were any leaks?
The water had overflowed the washing machine drain in the entry, and was splashing all over the floor under the washing machine.
We grabbed a bunch of towels to soak up the mess as best we could without actually moving both the washer and drier (there is a single step just barely in front of the washing machine, so it can’t be pulled out without moving the drier).
My daughter decided to try using drain cleaner and poured some down the washing machine drain pipe – we have an extra long, flexible funny just to access this drain without having to move the washing machine. She set a times for half an hour, before boiling water would be poured down, then took a well deserved break.
I used that time to set up the basins to wash as rinse as many dishes as I could fit in the dish tray. Once that was done, the dirty water could be tossed outside, since we can’t drain anything down the kitchen sink, still.
Meanwhile, my daughter was able to set a couple of baking trays in the oven for some of what I’d picked up at the grocery store for them, now that access to the oven was no longer blocked by a took kit and all the stuff that had been stored under the sink.
My daughter finally got to eat, after about 14-15 hours.
While all this was going on, I kept my brother up to date. We are at a loss as to why this main drain pipe is so clogged. We had it routered 2 or 3 years ago. The first time it had ever been cleared in almost 50 years. Why is it clogged again after such a short time? And this badly! We’ve been trying to be diligent in making sure nothing goes down the drain that shouldn’t, like grease and whatnot, and using the bacteria and enzyme pipe maintenance stuff.
We do have that commercial drain auger my husband bought for me. We just don’t have what we need to be able to open up the main line in the basement, then seal it up again properly.
My brother wondered if it was possible there was freezing happening. The pipe runs past the old basement window. That window, however, is currently filled in with 3″ thick Styrofoam insulation on the inside, and on the outside, it has what used to be a “roof” above the window, now leaning over it for protection from the elements. That entire corner, on the outside, is well sheltered.
My husband’s bedroom is right above this area, though, and he says he can hear the gurgling in the pipes, and thinks the clog is near that window. He may be partially right. However…
After the drain cleaner got to sit for half an hour, my daughter went to pour boiling water down. She poured straight from the kettle, which is 1.7L
I don’t think she got more than a litre in before it started to overflow the pipe!
Which means the clog is practically at the bottom of the drain pipe.
This drain pipe has been here since the house got indoor plumbing in the mid 70’s. While there is a washing machine in the entry now, when the new part of the house was added on, my dad had a sink installed in the entry, so that they could wash up from working in the barn or whatever, before going into the rest of the house. Basically, it was a mud room. My mother apparently hated have a sink there, so when they stopped having cattle, she put something over the sink and taps, covered it with a cloth, and put decorative stuff on it.
I found the original sink, and the counter it’s in, in one of the sheds.
When my husband and younger daughter came out several weeks ahead of my older daughter and I, my younger daughter helped my brother turn the entry into a laundry room, taking advantage of the existing plumbing, so that we wouldn’t have to go up and down those horrible stairs carrying laundry all the time.
Have a mentioned, my brother is awesome?
He has also been asking me to take pictures of various parts of the plumbing to send to him. I have no intention of asking, but I suspect he plans to come out here to see what he can do. He needs to retrieve his car, anyhow, now that it seems our truck really is safe to drive and is running quite well, in spite of a sensor telling us otherwise. My brother knows how to do this stuff, and has the tools – but they are mostly here, and scattered in different areas.
The alternative is to call a plumber to clear that drain again. Last I looked, it was a flat rate of $300 for a drain clearing plus 1 hour of time. Parts and more time extra, if it turns out to be a bigger problem. That was a few years ago, and I expect the prices have had to go up, with how much more expensive things have gotten since then. I’ve tried calling that plumber a few times since then, left messages and never got return calls. We used this company because it was the only one that had the big drain auger – they cleared the floor pipe to the septic tank, the first time we called them. This time, though, we have our own auger, so really, we could call any plumber.
But not today.
After all that fighting with the kitchen plumbing – which did turn out to be necessary, considering the condition of things under there – we still can’t use our kitchen sink.
At least the line from the bathroom to where it drops down to the septic tank is clear!
I have no idea what we’re going to do at this point. Thankfully, my older daughter was able to help with covering the cost of vehicle repairs and paying the septic guy, but that can get used up awfully fast! Just the stuff I got today is only because she was able to help out.
As for me, I am just tired. Mentally tired. So very tired of things breaking down. It’s been more than a year of one thing after another, and even when things get fixed – like the ejector, or that sensor on the truck – it’s still an issue.
This is really starting to drain everything out of me.
Not that it matters. All we can do is keep chugging along, making do with what we have.
For now, that means things like doing the dishes in basins and dumping the water outside, and having an emergency diverter attached to our septic pump to also dump things outside.
I think I need to make myself go to bed early, and try to get some rest. Thankfully, I’m not the one that had to crawl around under a sink, so I didn’t have any major exertions. Just walking around with my brother as he was checking the expeller and installing the diverter did me in, unexpectedly. It has been a long time, but at about 3am last night, it caught up with me and I got hit with Charlie Horses again. This time, both thighs, all the way around. All I did was try to roll over in bed, and that was it. Thankfully, my daughters were up and heard me calling for help, and my younger daughter was able to bring me some ibuprofen (acetaminophen doesn’t help for Charlie Horses) and stay with me. The attack – and that’s exactly what it felt like – ended as quickly as it started, which was the weirdest sensation. After all this time, going to bed now feels as risky and driving the truck with that sensor issue!
Today, I needed to drive my mother to her doctor’s appointment, but didn’t have to leave until morning.
That gave me a chance to check on our emergency diverter set up that my brother made outside the house, ensuring that things were still sitting where they needed to.
Aside from making sure the PVC pipe my brother found was snug against the house, this is the important part.
The orange tarp partially buried in snow is the end of the insulated tarp covering the septic tank that we did not have to move. It was pulled away from the house, instead. This end gets frozen harder to the ground.
The two lengths of pipe need to be kept straight and slow downwards. At the bottom left corner of the above photo, you can just see the section of chimney flu that is supporting it closer to the house. We used basically what we could find in the dark. They will do the job, as long as things stay where they are supposed to. The shoveled area in the snow will basically become a skating rink.
In the distance, you can see the large flexible hose that was meant to be used. The problem is, it doesn’t straighten out entirely. Ever snake-like turn is an area that water could potentially slow down and freeze. The pipe is about 6″ in diameter, but even that can eventually fill and freeze solid. So it looks like we won’t be able to use it.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Using my brother’s car (and making sure to give the engine time to warm up, first!), I headed out early enough to hit the post office.
Alas, the mail that I’m expecting that didn’t come in due to the postal strike, still has not come in. Nor has anything else. Not even junk mail. The strikers may have been ordered to return to work (as a Crown corporation, the Federal government has the authority to do that), but apparently, that doesn’t mean they are going to actually do their work.
Oh, something I learned about this strike. It turns out that Canada Post has two unions. One is for the regular postal workers we see delivering our mail and in the physical buildings, like in our little hamlet. The other is for the ones that work in the distribution centres and such. Those are the ones that went on strike. So, while regular postal workers still showed up for work, they couldn’t do anything, because the distribution centres were shut down. It was a rotating strike, so every week, a different distribution centre would be active again, allowing for some mail to trickle through. Of course, if it was going from one distribution centre to the next, that really didn’t make much difference.
But I digress.
From there, it was off to my mother’s town and, since I was so early, I swung by the hardware store. After talking to one of the staff, I picked up some reflective insulation. They sell this stuff in sizes large enough to wrap around hot water tanks, to narrow strips that would be wrapped around pipes. Which is exactly what I wanted. I also got a small roll of aluminum tape. I plan to wrap the outflow pipe where it butts up against the house, as that is the area most at risk of freezing. Then I plan to add some between the pipes and the supports. Where the log is, isn’t much of a concern, but the ceramic chimney flu and the brick can both chill the pipe and potentially cause an ice build up on the inside. Just a bit of insulation would prevent that.
From there, I made a stop at the gas station. I didn’t need gas yet, but I knew my mother would be getting her Meals on Wheels today. Though I had a large and late breakfast before I left, she had told me she didn’t like to be eating by herself, with someone watching her. So I picked up some of the potato wedges she likes so much, so that I could snack while she was eating, and she could have the rest with her supper, later on.
When I got to her place, though, she had just finished eating her main meal. So we had some tea while she ate her desert. 😊 We were able to have a bit of a visit before we had to leave, and I updated her a bit on what was going on, and that my brother had lent us their car rather than my SIL driving all the way out to drive both of us around, and that he’d installed the diverter. I’m not sure, but I think she was still living at the farm the last time (and first time) it was used.
We left early to go to her doctor’s appointment, and I’m glad we did. I ended up having to go back to her apartment to get her little folding foot stool. Even though the car is so much lower than the truck, she still needed the stool to be able to get in! That is a definite drop in mobility.
Once at the clinic, we had a long wait, as everyone was being called in late. Once in the examination room, we still had a bit of a wait. When the doctor finally came in, she started off asking if we could move to another room, but then she saw my mother and told us to stay put, she would go get her laptop. It turns out the clinic was having network problems with all the examination room computers, and that was why everything was behind.
So we tried to keep it short. The main thing was to get my mother rescheduled for the MRI we didn’t get to, due to dangerous road conditions. I confirmed that my mother’s file was up to date about her macular degeneration and treatment. The doctor has nothing to do with this, as my mother is being treated at the eye clinic in the city, but as the primary doctor, she is supposed to have all this information sent to her. Then we talked about my mother’s breathing issues. One of her neighbours has asthma and uses a puffer (inhaler), so my mother decided she should have one, too. So could she be tested for asthma?
The doctor just prescribed her a puffer. She explained that she could recommend her for testing, but that is done in the city, and my mother would be on a waiting list for probably a year. Using a puffer won’t hurt her. I don’t think my mother as asthma, but even if there’s just a placebo effect, it would be worth it.
After giving my mother a basic physical exam, the doctor adjusted one of her dosages, and that was it. We knew the doctor was behind because of the computer issues, so we didn’t talk about much else. Which is good, because my mother usually wastes time by asking personal questions, or bringing up issues that she has… opinions on, shall we say.
My mother wasn’t due for any bloodwork, but the doctor did want to see her again in 3 months, so I made that appointment before we headed out.
Since the doctor faxed the new and updated prescriptions directly to the pharmacy in my mother’s town, that was our first stop. I went in while my mother stayed in the car, as it was just too much for her to go in and out. My mother was due to have her bubble packs delivered on Friday, and has started her last week’s current pack, so when I got there, her new packs were already there and ready to go. So that got pulled and adjusted for the new dosage. Instead of delivering on Friday, they will deliver tomorrow. As for the last pack my mother just started, the pharmacist said for her to set it aside and use the new once when they arrive, and the current pack can be brought back and adjusted.
As for the inhaler, it would take an hour before it would be ready, so that will be delivered tomorrow, too. Having been given an inhaler to see if it would help with my own respiratory issues (which we’ve never found the cause of, and I’ve basically given up trying to find one), I was able to explain to my mother how they work and how to use one, etc. She’ll need reminding, of course, but I hope the staff that delivers her meds tomorrow will be able to explain it again.
That done, there was just a brief stop at the grocery store for me to run in and pick up a couple of things for my mother before I took her home. I didn’t stay too much longer after that. I’m glad the days are longer, and I did manage to get home while it was still light out.
In between all this, I was able to send the OBDII scan results on the truck to the garage and he was able to respond. It’s basically the oil pressure sensor again. The one that was recently replaced, and also recently cleaned out because it was triggering the alarm and “shut off engine now” warnings, because it thought the truck was out of oil. This time, it has so far just turned on the check engine light again (though I did clear the codes, so that should be off now), and it why the oil pressure gauge isn’t moving. He told me, even if he replaced the sensor again, it’ll keep happening, because of the weather we’ve been having. There’s really nothing he can do about it. I suppose I could pay him to take it apart and clean it again, but that’s about it.
So really, what I need to be doing is getting the engine warmed up and staying warm long enough to evaporate any moisture in the system and triggering the sensor. It’ll resolve itself as things warm up again, as there won’t be that build up of moisture anymore.
I don’t need to go anywhere tomorrow, and it’s supposed to be a bit warmer, so I’ll run the engine while I’m outside.
Which leads me to my phone call with my brother this evening.
I’d sent the pictures he took to the company that installed the ejector, and the response was the same. The pump isn’t pushing out the water fast enough to create the pressure needed. This frustrated my brother to know end, because he knows the pump is pushing fine. As for how long it takes to drain the tank, he told me that 5 minutes is about right, because our tank is about twice the size of most other tanks. It’s huge. I was so young when it was installed, I was probably not allowed to go anywhere near it at the time.
Plus, that ice wall on the sheet of metal roof the ejector expels the water onto shows just how far and how strong the flow of water is.
Or was.
I know I’ve described the ejector system before, but my brother sent me some info with a diagram. The image was a pdf and terrible pixelated, but I think I got a decent screen cap of it.
I don’t know if ours is from this company, but it’s the exact same design.
With our new ejector, it’s about 2′ above ground, so about 8′ is below ground. I think the original was more like 12′ based on how much more was above ground than the new one. The venturi pipe – the discharge pipe, in the diagram – should never stay full once the pump shuts off. Once installed, the venturi pipe can be (carefully!) removed and replaced, which is what we were supposed to do after using enough hot water to thaw the ice and free it.
One of the things my brother brought up again was electric heat tape. There are all kinds of heat tape, and my husband had sent me a link for one that he’d found on Amazon. As my brother voiced concerns that, if we did try to use heat tape to thaw the above ground portion of the 4″ stand pipe, it might melt the plastic, I sent him the link. It is safe for both metal and plastic pipes, and self regulating. It’s also available in a huge range of lengths. He estimated that a 12′ length would be enough to wrap around the pipe, up to the elbow coming out of the cap. It was affordable, so I ordered it. It’s estimated to arrive on the 17th, though, so we have other things to try.
One of the things my brother thinks is a contributing factor is the new location of the ejector. The old one was about 10-15 feet away, and had a big willow overhanging it. The willow may have protected it from the elements (even though the roots were probably why it was starting to lean backwards and eventually start leaking). Right now, the ejector may be in full sunlight, but it is completely exposed to the winds we get. With the temperatures we’ve had lately, that could be a contributing factor so a slow freeze happening, and to the slow flow I was seeing in the filter. As long as some water was getting through, it wasn’t freezing completely, though, and just building up. I have a theory. The night before I discovered no flow was happening at all anymore, the septic pump had not gone off at all. Normally, between the 4 of us, plus my older daughter working at night, there’s plenty of toilet flushing, dish washing and even at least one shower. That didn’t happen, and it may have allowed for the stand pipe to finally freeze solid, and the venturi (discharge) pipe along with it.
I had already been thinking that, in the spring, I would need to put some sort of fence around the new ejector. Being so much lower to the ground, the renters cows out traipse right over it, even with the metal sheet butted up against it to divert the flow of water. My brother was thinking we’d need to build some kind of semi-permanent shelter over or around it, to protect it from the element in winter. I say “semi-permanent” as we need to assume that, some day, it will need to have work done on it, and we’d need to be able to move it.
At one point, I thought of the catio. It has a clear roof and is wrapped in plastic, making it almost a mini greenhouse. It would fit over the ejector.
Then I remembered the metal sheet. It couldn’t fit on top of that, since it has a curl to it that ensures the water flows away, and not off the sides.
But, there was possibilities.
So, while we wait for the heat tape to arrive, we need to see if we can find something we can use to build a shelter over it for this winter. My brother thinks a couple of pallets set up as a V around it, then something on top, would do the trick. We have no pallets, but he’s sure he brought some. There might also be some scrap plywood we could find somewhere.
Which means, I have a task for tomorrow. Going through the barn and sheds to see what I can find that could be used to build a shelter over the ejector. Just something we can slap together for now, but strong and heavy enough to not be blown over and destroyed by the wind. Ideally, I’d find something clear for a “roof” and add a little passive solar heat.
Trudging around outside will also give me a chance to get the truck running and see how it does! We’re warming up over the next few days, including the overnight lows, which should help, too. The day after tomorrow, my daughter and I have our joint appointment. It would be good if we could use our own truck and return my brother’s car! They really do need two vehicles.
Well, we’ll see how it goes. There’s not much else we can do!
Meanwhile, our septic tank still hasn’t filled enough to trigger the pump, so we still don’t know if the diverter will actually work, yet. It should work just fine. It’s just that we’ve had so many things breaking down for so long, now, I’m getting pretty paranoid about it all!
Insanely awesome. Fantastic. Amazing. What would we do without him?
After a long drive home (I think it’s 6 hours, possibly 8), he stopped only to pick up a few things, then took their second car to our place. Once here, he went into the basement to look at things there (there wasn’t much to see, really) and change into his ski pants before grabbing his supplies and heading to the barn. Right about then, my SIL showed up. Unfortunately, she’s allergic to cats, so she can’t come into the house, and just stayed in the car the whole time, though we did get a chance to talk for a bit.
My brother looked around in the barn for a while, trying to find some copper pipe. The one corner I thought I’d seen some had a different type of pipe, but there was a length of pipe were I remembered, up in the rafters. My brother was able to reach it. It was only about 6′ long, though. We talked about finding a way to add a safety line, just in case, but its surface was too smooth.
He grabbed one of their super long extension cords that they now have stored in the barn and we headed out to the ejector with the copper pipe. Then, while I secured the end of the extension cord to a fence post, he ran the rest of the cord to the pump shack, which is a bit closer than the barn.
When he finished that, he headed to the car to get the heat gun, while I popped into the house. I’d found a piece of copper pipe in the basement that had a slightly wider part at the end, so it would hold a safety line. That way, if we accidentally dropped it, we could pull it up again.
Not that we ever needed it.
By the time I got there, my brother had opened up the ejector, taken a look, then put it all back again. When I got there, he popped the elbow off and removed the cap to show me what he found.
The first obvious problem was, the venture pipe was frozen right to the top. It should have been empty. When the pump turns off, any liquid in the venturi pipe drains to the bottom, which is about 10 or 12 feet down.
The 4″ pipe around it was also full, though not quite to the top. I stuck the copper pipe I had into the opening until I hit ice to see how far down it went, and it was about 8″ from the surface.
This absolutely should not have happened.
My brother put the pieces back and we headed to the house so install the diverter.
Before we did, we went to the corner of the house on the outside to find the opening. It was higher than I expected, for some reason. I still had the copper pipe I’d brought over with me (it made for a handy walking stick in the snow!), and my brother used it to punch a hole through the spray foam insulation.
From there, it was to the basement, to install the diverter.
Installing the diverter itself was an easy thing. First, he pushed the length of pipe to the outside through the hole.
He had drilled that hole himself, years ago, when they had to do some major work on the septic system, so my parents could still use their plumbing. This is the log part of the house, which is sitting on top of those joists – which turned out to be twice as thick as he expected! It took a lot to drill out that hole.
Once that end was through the wall, it was just a matter of removing the outflow pipe at the top of the pump and replacing it with the diverter.
A simple thing – yet I could not have done it.
I don’t have a heat gun.
After loosening the clamps on the outflow pipe, my brother had to use the heat gun to soften the plastic enough to pull it off. He still had to get pretty physical with it – I was rather alarmed to see the pump being moved around so much. I’d thought it was bolted down to the concrete! Turns out, it’s bolted down to some plywood. Which makes sense, as it would be easier to change pumps that way.
Once the pipe was free, however, black fluid started spilling out. All my brother could do was try to get as little as possible on the pump itself – and not get splashed himself! Me, I immediately went for the broom we keep nearby, to sweep water into the floor drain when there’s seepage in the spring. Once I got as much as I could swept away, my brother attached the diverter – making sure to remember to put the clamps on pipe, first! After softening the plastic with his heat gun a few times, he was able to get the pipe all the way on, then clamp it down.
The next thing to do was set something up to the pipe outside, to get any outflow well away from the house. The big flexible hose (it’s about 6″ in diameter) he’d brought for us before was stored in the barn, so it would have been quite frozen. He was concerned about using it, as it might crack from the cold. There were some old downspouts in the barn, though, so he went to look and see what he could find that could be used right away.
While he went to do that, I got the hose that I use to clear the floor drain and access pipe to give the floor where the fluid had spilled a bit of a wash, and swept that into the floor drain (the floor doesn’t slope towards the drain properly). While I was doing that, I heard some gurgling from the filter as it drained. This was to be expected, though, with the pipes being switched. I left it for the moment, though, then headed outside again to join my brother.
I got there just in time to see him carrying to lengths of pipe, and dragging the flexible hose behind him! He had it by one end, so that it would straighten a bit while being dragged.
I was impressed that he found two lengths of interlocking 4″ PVC pipe in the barn. I have no idea where he dug those out!
I grabbed the flexible hose from him so he could carry the pipes more easily.
The next while was spent setting up the PVC pipe over the diverter hose sticking out of the house. It was very important that the PVC pipe be right up against the house, and as high as possible, so nothing would flow backwards towards the house. The two pieces were interlocked, and we added whatever we could find to support its weight, so that it would be completely straight. The ground slopes downwards there, so that part was fine. The very end had to be raised off the ground, so that there would be no chance of fluid freezing and blocking the end.
As for the flexible hose, that got pulled out further, so that the black plastic could be warmed by the sun, tomorrow. Eventually, it will be added to the end of the PVC pipe, and the outflow will be sent well into the trees.
For now, he made sure to shovel a trench of sorts into the snow, to direct any outflow that might happen before then. Unfortunately, he dug it straight towards our little Liberty Apple tree! I mentioned that it was there, and he was saying “fertilizer!” I said that if it freezes, it’ll kill it.
I have to add, though; this is a Zone 4 tree, and we are Zone 3. With this cold snap we’re getting right now, it may well have been killed off. We won’t know until spring!
Anyhow. Once my brother saw where it was, he just dug the trench more to one side.
Once we were sure of how everything was set up, it was back to the basement. The filter was primed, and the pump turned back on.
From there, my brother headed out to shut off lights and close up doors. He also moved the car they are leaving for us over to where I had set up the extension cord for the block heater. I helped out, then went over to the gate to close it behind them.
Now, we wait.
We can use our plumbing as normal for now. It will take at least a few days before both sides of the septic tank fill and the pill switch triggers the pump. My brother was already fretting that it might not turn on at all, but I don’t see why it won’t. We’ll just have to keep an eye on things and listen for the pump.
We are all, understandably, paranoid about using our water right now. Is it safe to flush? Can we take a shower? Wash dishes in the sink?
The answer is yes…
… but… are we sure?
At least we know the diverter pipe is right here. The pipes outside are wide enough that they shouldn’t ice up, but it would be much, much easier to take care of that, should it happen.
As for the ejector…
Well, I’ll be heading to my mother’s in the late morning, so I should be able to call the company that installed the ejector and tell them what we found. Everyone was saying how I could pull the venturi pipe out and bring it inside so the venturi valve on the bottom can thaw, so obviously no one thought the whole thing could be frozen solid the way it is. Something is wrong, somewhere.
What will come of that, I have no idea.
It will help knowing that the pump is far newer than I thought it was, and that it was the highest end pump my brother could get.
For now, though, it looks like we’ll have our emergency diverter set up for the rest of the winter.
It is what it is. We’ll just have to deal with what we’ve got! I’m just incredibly thankful that we had that diverter, and that my brother was willing to come out here tonight, after such a long drive, to do what he could for us.
Have I mentioned, just how awesome my brother is?
I don’t think I could say it often enough. My brother is the best!
You can see the times I took the above three screencaps, showing this morning’s temperatures. It’s coming up to 1pm as I write this, and we have not only finally warmed up to -20C/-4C, but it’s such a sunny day that the “windchill” is -15C/5F. The last screencap I took, at 9am, was just before I headed outside to feed the cats (I skipped the rest of my morning rounds), and the south facing part of the house was feeling much warmer. The wind direction just managed to be blocked by the trees to the south, which made a huge difference.
Unfortunately, we still have no septic, and the tank was not pumped yesterday, so we can’t use our plumbing. The septic truck broke down and never made it.
This morning, I tried calling one of the plumbers back – they are supposed to be available 24 hrs, according to their website. I left a message, but no one has called back.
So, we’re still using the honey pot in the bathroom. No showers and using as little water as possible to wash our hands. To do dishes, we’ve got basins on the dining room table, then we dump the dirty water outside when we’re done. We’ve even changed how we’re cooking, to try and dirty as few dishes as possible, and nothing that involves washing things, or dumping cooking water down the sink. I made a “use whatcha got” soup this morning out up leftovers – even the last bits of charcuteries meat and vegetable sticks we’d prepared extra of for New Year’s – for a hearty one pot meal.
—— pause for phone calls and messages and more calls and …. everything has changed! ——
Okay, I feel like I’m going through mental whiplash right now!
I will get to that in a moment.
Where was I?
Ah, yes. Doing dishes!
Basically, we’re being careful to have as little water going into the septic tank as possible. It can handle being at least a bit overfull – we’ve certainly gone more than a little over full just this past summer! – but we really want to avoid that.
I’m actually getting used to using the honeypot, because we can’t flush the toilet.
Yeesh.
Anyhow…
The plumber I left a message with got back to me while I was writing this. The first thing he let me know is that they are booked solid and cannot come out.
He also sounded rather upset for me. I’d mentioned the ejector was replaced about a month, month and a half ago. Ejectors are made to work in the winter. He used to install them himself. He has one himself that was installed in the 90’s, and it’s working fine. It shouldn’t be frozen. He suggested I call the company that installed it and get them to fix it. I told him I’d already talked to them, and he asked what they said when I told them it was frozen. I told the plumber that, at the time I called, we were thinking the problem was somewhere else at the time, and he was the one who suggested the ejector might be frozen. I didn’t confirm that until after. I also mentioned he’d asked me to call him back today, which I was planning to do. He told me that, when I did, to tell them they needed to come put and fix the ejector.
*sigh*
I did call the owner of the company back and basically told him what the plumber said. He was quite frustrated by that; apparently plumbers pretty regularly do stuff like that, when they don’t actually know what’s going on.
The problem is not the ejector.
The system we have works like this. The plumbing in the house all drains into one side of our septic tank. The solids sink to the bottom and, once it fills, the greywater drains into the other side of the tank. That side has a float with a pill switch in it. When it fills, the float triggers the pump inside the house. The pump pulls the greywater from the second half of the tank – this inflow pipe is where we have the filter installed, to catch any bits and pieces that might be in the water that could damage the pump – then pumps it out to the ejector. The outflow pipe runs most of the length of the basement and out the wall. The pipe, along with water pipes that supplies the heated water fountains for cattle, and a tap in the barn, runs about 300 or more feet to the barn, then turns away from the barn towards a low spot. From there, the venturi pipe creates enough pressure to draw the water up the pipe and out.
With ours, we’ve got a sheet of metal roofing to reduce erosion and divert the greywater towards a low area, further away from the barn.
That elbow at the top is part of the venturi pipe.
When the septic pump shuts off, any water in the venturi pipe drops down below the frost line and collects at the bottom of the 4″ pipe. The next time the septic pump turns on, the venturi pipe drains what’s at the bottom of the 4″ pipe first.
Here’s the problem.
There has to be enough pressure for this to happen, and that requires a certain gallons per minute rate of flow (he couldn’t remember exactly what that was). If there isn’t enough pressure, the venturi pipe can’t drain the bottom of the 4″ pipe completely. Then the pump shuts off, the water drains to the bottom, but now there’s more than there was before.
Eventually, the water level in the 4″ pipe gets above the frost line.
The septic pump, he told me, should take only about 2-3 minutes to drain the tank.
Ours takes about 5 minutes.
Except, recently, we’ve been having issues with flow.
First, the pump would empty the filter, but there wasn’t more water coming in from the tank. I would have to stop the pump, prime the filter, turn it on again, and it would work. The inflow, however, wasn’t as powerful as it had been, before.
The night before it stopped working entirely, the pump hadn’t gone off at all. The only reason it would was if we were using enough water for the second side of the tank to fill and the pill switch triggered the pump to turn on. That just didn’t happen.
So not only was the flow of water from the pump low, but there was no flow at all during one of the coldest nights we’ve had this year. Flowing water would have helped keep it from freezing entirely – at least for a while longer.
Which means that, ultimately, the problem is the pump and the flow of greywater.
Now, the pump *is* wearing out and needs to be replaced, but that may not be the problem. There may also be an air leak somewhere, affecting the vacuum. Which may have been what I was seeing, with a leak from the filter and the O ring not sealing. Or, there could be an air leak somewhere else.
Now, we could install the diverter and an emergency measure, but we still need to get the ejector thawed out, and we probably still need to replace the pump. I’ve been checking the filter regularly, and even turning the pump on for a few moments. It’s not draining, and the filter is not leaking, which – in theory, at least – means there is no longer an air leak.
Other issues could be that the pipe leading to the ejector is also getting coated with gunk on the inside and getting narrower. This is something we have been aware of and have been taking steps to try and improve. One of those was to use the Septo Bac every two days for two weeks, and we really did see a difference in how things flowed after that. Currently, we’re using Free Flow pipe maintenance twice a week; that is more to clear the pipes inside the house, but it would be beneficial for the tank and the pipe to the ejector, too.
—– Must pause for exciting news. —–
The septic guy just arrived! Our tank is being emptied right now!
We’ll be able to flush our toilet again!
I did get a peek into the tank when he popped the lid off. The level had not reached the pipe that the pill switch cable runs through yet, which was quite a relief.
That guy deserves one helluva tip.
Okay, where was I…
Right.
So there are a number of possible reasons why the ejector wasn’t able to drain properly, which resulted in the freeze.
I then got instructions on how to thaw out the ejector (that doesn’t involve ice fishing tents and heaters, as one plumber suggested trying).
I wasn’t able to pull the venturi pipe out because it’s frozen, but could rotate the cap. I couldn’t take the cap off, because of the elbow.
Well, that elbow has a screw, and it comes off.
We could take off the elbow and remove the cap.
We could then start pouring boiling water into the 4″ pipe, around the venturi pipe. However, he said to put some copper pipe down, first. The pipe itself will heat up and help thaw things out faster, but it would also help get water down more directly and further through the ice on the bottom.
Once it seems like enough ice was melted, someone could turn on the septic pump and, hopefully, it would drain the water at the bottom, and empty the septic tank.
That would take a long time, and it’s still colder than -20C/-4F out there.
—- pause for more calls —-
Oh, my goodness. More changes! This time, for tomorrow, too. I’ll get caught up to that, later.
With all this, I’ve been keeping my brother and his wife up to date, pretty constantly.
Given our concerns with the truck, another thing I had to deal with last night was how to get my mother to her medical appointment on Monday. Plus, I was supposed to come early enough to do her laundry for her. She called last night to tell me she was able to get her laundry done herself and that I didn’t need to come early. I told her a bit about what was going on (I didn’t want to overwhelm her!) and that I wasn’t sure if I could get her to her appointment. She tried calling my sister to drive her (which she didn’t want, as I’m the one who normally accompanies my mother, so I’m on top of what’s going on), but my sister starts her shift at work less than an hour after my mother’s appointment.
I passed that on to my brother as well. Today, I was supposed to run the engine a few times, so see if the problem continued, then decide Monday morning, if I’d be rescheduling my mother’s appointment. Possibly mine and my daughter’s on Wednesday, too.
I got a call from my SIL. They were going to be coming home on Sunday (today), and she offered to drive us. She would pick me up first, then we’d pick up my mother, drive her to her appointment, then she’d drive us both home again, then head home herself.
I was stunned by the offer – that’s a LOT of driving for her! Once I was sure this would not be too much of a problem for her, I gratefully accepted the offer.
Today, I’ve been messaging them the whole time, while they are on the way home. My SIL was driving, so my brother was able to respond to my messages.
When I told him about thawing the ejector and needing to look for a long enough copper pipe (I know I’ve seen some, somewhere!), he called me. I was just bundling up to go outside and check the barn.
Which is jam packed with their stuff.
I’m sure there is one long enough in one corner of the old bull’s stall, but it’s full of my brother’s gardening supplies now. I wasn’t sure if it was there, and I wasn’t sure if I could reach it! I’m pretty sure there are lengths of copper pipe in the rafters, too, but again, I’m not sure I could reach them. The centre aisle of the barn is full of tractors and snow blowers and rotary mowers, and I’m… well… short.
My brother called to tell me not to bother trying to thaw out the ejector. They would go home, then come here with both their cars. My SIL would follow later. He would take a look at the ejector, see what he could do, then she would drive him home.
They would leave one of their cars with us. It’s already parked outside, so they know it can handle the cold.
My truck should, too – it certainly did last winter! – but that’s another story….
The thing is, they were still about 3-4 hours away from home! Add in the time to come here, and he won’t get here until after dark!
But he felt he had no choice. No one is coming out to install the diverter, and no one was going to come out to thaw out the ejector. The one company would have, but they are so far away, it would be a lot more expensive, and they didn’t want to ding us with a huge bill. It’s not like they’d be coming out to fix an actual problem with the ejector they installed, that would be covered by any kind of warranty.
Plus, by leaving us with their car, my SIL won’t have to do all that driving.
Then my brother told me to sit down with a cup of tea and relax for a while. He knows me well enough to know how all this has been stressing me out.
Which is about when my husband called out, saying “are you expecting someone with a big truck?”
I’d opened the gate for the septic truck last night, and never closed it. He was able to drive right in!
He’d backed into the yard, so I threw on my parka and headed out. We went over to where I’d cleared things to make room for the truck and the hoses, and got the insulated tarp freed from the frozen ground. He then went to back the truck up the rest of the way. I confirmed how much we owed him, and told him it might be a couple of days before I can get the cash to him. He was fine with that. We’ve done this before, and he knows he can trust us.
With that, I went back inside and let my brother know the septic truck was here. It didn’t take him long at all to empty the truck, so when my brother said he wanted to call, I delayed it long enough for me to go back out, put the weights back down on the tarp, which the septic guy had put back, and put everything away.
Not before using the toilet and actually being able to flush it!!!
Ooooo… Very exciting! 😂🤣😂
While it was great that the tank was emptied, it does make thawing the ejector a bit more complicated. It will take probably a few days before both sides of the tank filles enough to trigger the pump again. Which means that, if we thaw the ejector, there’s not way to test it.
My brother thinks he should be able to use his heat gun and the copper pipe to thaw the ejector.
We’ll see how it works out, though. We won’t really know what we’re dealing with until we get that cap off and can actually see how high the ice it – or use the copper pipe to find how far it goes.
When they reach their place, he’ll grab a few tools, but we really only need a screwdriver to remove the single screw to get that elbow off.
Of course, things never turn out as expected, so who knows.
They don’t have a lot of tools at their place right now. They brought most of them here, to the farm. However, they’re scattered all over. They didn’t have time to be organized about it, but just jammed things wherever they could. My brother won’t be able to start organizing things until spring, at the earliest.
Well, we’ll do what we can with where we are at.
Meanwhile, they will be leaving a car here, and it will need to be plugged in. So I headed out to the garage to get a 100′ extension cord and set that up through the back door of the garage, so the car can be parked in the more sheltered yard.
While I was at it, I finally got to the truck and got the engine running. Then, after puttering with the extension cord, I set up my OBDII scanner.
The first thing I noticed was that the oil pressure gauge was still sitting at 0 and not moving. The check engine light was on again, too.
I did a full module scan. What I’m getting is “Engine Oil Pressure Sensor/Switch “A” High. Five times.
Looking into more detail, the scanner tells me this code frequency is “very common”. The recommended fix is to replace the engine oil pressure sensor.
Which got replaced not that long ago. Unless “switch A” is a different sensor.
I took screen captures of the results. When I’m somewhere with enough data signal to send images through text, I’ll send them to the garage.
Otherwise, the truck sounded just fine. In fact, now that the MAF sensor has been replaced, I do hear an improvement in how it starts, when using the remote car starter. Definitely smoother. I’d checked the oil yesterday, and it was fine, too.
Phew.
This post took a lot longer – and became a lot longer – than I expected!
As of right now, I’m basically just waiting for my brother to arrive and will accompany him to the ejector.
My brother is the best. So is his wife! I am so glad my mother transferred ownership of the property over to them. I don’t know what we’d do without them!
It feels like it should be 2 or 3 in the afternoon!
I tried going to be early last night, but it was an interrupted night. Which was a good thing, really. At one point, I heard the toilet flush, and the septic pump turned on soon after. I forced myself to stay awake, listening for it to turn off.
It didn’t.
Downstairs I went and checked the filter. There was no water in it. The pump was running dry. Thankfully, not for very long. I shut it off, primed the filter, then turned it on again. It took a few moments, but I was soon seeing water flowing in and it was running properly.
Running dry like that is not at all good for the pump. If I didn’t happen to be awake to hear it, it would have kept running all night, or until I woke to go to the bathroom or something. No one else in the house can hear it.
After the pump shut itself up, I popped the top on the filter and primed it again, even though it was still mostly full. Air must be getting into the system somewhere, but it’s not the filter cap, as that was sealed tight when I popped it open. Once it is full, it should stay full. There’s no sign of a leak under the filter that I can see, but once it’s primed, the level doesn’t drop. It’s when the pump turns on that it drains, but doesn’t refill completely once the water from the tank starts flowing. It seems that, after it runs properly a couple of times, the filter just doesn’t have enough water in it to create the vacuum needed anymore, and it runs dry. It’s almost as if the pump isn’t pulling water from the tank efficiently enough anymore, or there might be a partial block in the intake pipe, somewhere between the pump filter and the septic tank. The outflow seems to be working fine.
If anyone has ideas as to why that would be, I’d love to hear it!
Either way, that pump needs to be replaced before it burns out completely. For now, we’re going to have to constantly check on it and make sure that filter is full. Thank God we have that, because otherwise, we couldn’t see what is going on.
Working on the septic pump was at about 5-5:30 am, and my alarm was set for 7:30. I did manage a bit more sleep before I had to get up.
When heading out to do the morning rounds, I made sure to grab the truck keys, so I could start warming it up while switching out memory cards on the trail cams, and opening the gate ahead of time.
The new solar powered camera’s solar panel was frosted over, so I cleared that of. Checking the battery indicators, it showed that it was using the regular batteries, not the solar panel’s internal battery.
Then it gave a “low battery warning” and shut itself down.
Both sets of batteries were too frozen to power the camera!
I got it going enough to check it was up and running and recording before I moved on. The morning sun hits it directly, so it was already warming up and charging.
As I was finishing up my rounds, I made sure to double check the isolation shelter.
The patch, with its clear Gorilla tape over the crack, was doing its job. I still want to tape it on the inside, but it’ll be a while before it’s frost free enough to get it clean and dry. You can’t tell in the photo above, but the top of the isolation shelter was quite full of cats at the time!
The next image is a screen cap of the temperature taken several hours later. It had warmed up to -22C/-8F by then, but that windchill of -33C/-27F is the real killer.
I had been walking in that, just before taking that screenshot.
The isolation shelter is sheltered from most winds, though. The plastic around the bottom half would make a big difference, too. The cats love to just crowd into the top half. I’m glad I took out that insulated box and moved the bed into the middle. More cats can fit in there, now. I’m going to see if I can find a smaller cat bed I can shove into the corner near the heated water bowl, too. The insulation on the lounging shelf is being thoroughly taken advantage of, too.
My morning rounds done, I was soon on the road to drop the truck off at the garage. I had a 9am drop off time, rather than an appointment time, so when I dropped off the keys, I asked if he had an idea of how long it might me, just so I knew what I had time for while waiting. He figured it would be done by about 11.
So I had about 2 1/2 hours to kill.
I headed out to find somewhere for breakfast – and a public washroom (did I mention, these temperature fluctuations are murder on the bladder? 😄). I ended up going to a Subway. It’s been years since I’ve been there, but the only other place shared a bathroom in a pharmacy that wasn’t going to open for a while yet.
I wasn’t even sure the Subway was open, even though the sign was on. The lighting over the counter was very dark. I must have been their first customer of the day. They were still setting up. I ordered my favourite; a meatball sub. It was good, but the meatballs and sauce hadn’t had time to get hot, yet. That was okay. It was still warmer than the burger I had at Boston Pizza yesterday!
That done, I decided to pop into our regular pharmacy to cash in a couple of winning lottery tickets, then headed to the dollar store. There I found a bunch of breakaway cat collars. There was only one red one with reflective strips, but my daughters requested I not get red ones anymore. When they see red through the fur, their first reaction is alarm, because they think it’s a wound. So I got some colourful ones, instead. They are affordable there, and I was able to get six of them for about the price of, at best, two, in other stores. Most of the breakaway collars I see elsewhere actually cost more than what I paid for 6, and there’s really no difference in quality that I can see.
Of course, with that many collars, the woman at the counter was curious. When I told her they were for every yard cat that gets fixed, so we can tell them apart, she just lit up. It turns out she’s been taking care of a feral – and it’s now an indoor cat they’ve adopted! We talked for a while about the problems of stray cats, people dumping cats, and the insane cost of getting cats spayed and neutered. I showed her a picture of some of the yard cats inside the top of the isolation shelter and she told me, no way. I couldn’t do that. I’d have to keep them all! She had considered being a foster but knows herself well enough that she could never let any fosters go if she took them in, and joked about how, before she moved to where she is now, she was the “crazy cat lady.”
Which is basically what I am right now! 😄
Once I was finished there, I headed back towards the garage, stopping at the hardware store along the way. I picked up a block heater extension cord (we have a couple of older ones, but they’ve become damaged) and more of the Free Flow drain maintenance powder. For the next while, my daughters are using it twice a week, rather than once a week, to help keep that bottleneck in the pipe to the tank clear, as well as try and clear the main drain pipe from the bathroom to where it drops down and runs out of the house to the tank. It’s frustrating that we have a commercial pipe auger, and can’t even use it on this pipe. I did make good use of it in the pipes in the floor, at least. It’s a shame there isn’t another access to that pipe at the opposite end.
The plumbing in this place has been no end of problems since we’ve moved out here.
After getting what I needed at the hardware store, I headed to the garage. The truck was in one of the bays when I got there, so I just settled into one of the chairs in the office to wait. That was when I took the screen cap of what my weather app was showing, so I know the exact time I got there!
It wasn’t even windy out, but at those temperatures, even a light breeze results in quite the wind chill.
Our mechanic was constantly on the go, taking care of a customer ahead of me, taking care of deliveries coming in, and other vehicles to be worked on later in the day. In the middle of all this, my truck was driven out and another car immediately replaced it in the bay. It was just non-stop!
Then it came time to pay my bill.
Ouch.
$391 and change. The parts cost almost $250 and the labour was just under $100. Then there were the taxes, which added over $40 to the bill.
Well, it needed to be done.
We spoke for a while, and he told me everything went well with the fix. The check engine light is off, finally. He did let me know, though, that if moisture gets into that oil pressure sensor again, it will turn on again, first. It’s been fine since he cleaned it out, and the main thing will be for use to make sure the engine stays running long enough to evaporate the moisture. It’s the short trips with lots of stopping and starting, in these temperatures, that can cause the humidity to build up.
That done, I headed to the truck to start heading out. I noticed right away, he had the plug from the new block heater cord out and ready to be used!
It’s right in front of the deer screamer, but that shouldn’t be an issue while driving.
Then I went back in to get the container of Free Flow that I forgot in the office.
I was about to message my family when I saw a reminder from my husband. He’d wanted me to look into getting a battery warmer for the truck. I wasn’t sure how that would work out, since the battery is completely encased, but back in I went and asked.
Our mechanic looked up the part, and it will cost about $55. Plus labour. He did mention that it would take a bit longer because of the battery case, but he would expect labour to be about $30. Add in taxes, and we’re looking at about $100 to get a battery warmer installed. He’d need to order in the part.
We still need to get a tire sensor replaced, but that won’t be until next month. We could probably get both done then.
Finally, I was heading out. I was at a half tank and have lots of driving to do next week, so I stopped at a gas station to fill up.
The gas prices here were $1.499 It cost almost $70 to fill the tank, and that was after my CAA discount.
Ouch.
From there, I was finally heading home – and really appreciating the lack of a check engine light! – with only a quick stop at the post office. The mail I am expecting still isn’t in, but I did finally get a Christmas card! Thank you, CZ! It’s beautiful!
Then, it was finally home. With where the block heater’s plug came out, though, I found I did not need to use the new block heater cord that I bought. The truck is so long, I have to pull right up to the counter along the back of the garage, where I have a shop power bar set up. I was able to plug it right in there! The idea behind the block heater extension cord is that it controls the power level, so that the block heater isn’t constantly on, but the block heater cord, as you can see in the photo above, has its own controller, so that will be fine. I’ve left the new extension cord in the truck, so if we are ever out somewhere and are able to plug the truck in, we have it handy. Quite a few public parking lots have outlets available for people to plug in. They usually get turned on in the winter, off in the summer. While my husband and I were doing our running around yesterday, the spot I’d parked in that was in between all the places we needed to go had outlets available for people to plug in their block heaters. Now, I could actually make use of that!
With what happened with the septic pump last night, I’d messaged the family on the need to monitor it; especially if someone were taking a shower, as the pump goes off pretty much every time the shower is used. When I got home, my younger daughter was in the shower, so I headed for the basement as soon as I could. Both the well pump and the septic pump were running, and I was happy to see that the septic pump was running properly. I just waited until it was done, then popped the top off the filter and primed it again.
After that, I could finally relax and settle in to start writing this post, and was so surprised that it wasn’t even noon yet!
This has been the most interrupted post ever, though, so it’s been two hours since I started! 😄 It’s going to be time to head out and top up the kibble and water for the outside cats, soon.
One of those interruptions was a call from my mother. I’ll be taking her for her doctor’s appointment on Monday, and she wanted to talk to me about that. She’s been listening to her neighbours in her building again, and has decided she needs a puffer. She doesn’t have asthma, but I guess she could be tested for it.
By the time we got off the phone, we’d changed plans for me to come much earlier in the day to do her laundry. She can’t do it herself, and I haven’t been able to stay at her place long enough to do it for her. My sister has done it for her in the past, but she hasn’t visited lately. If she comes in on the weekend, maybe she can get it done, but otherwise, I’ll take care of it.
It’s going to make for a much longer day, that’s for sure!
Looking ahead in the weather forecast, though, I’m happy to see that all those nights they were predicting lows colder than -30C/-22F are pretty much gone, and on the days of my mother’s appointment, and my daughter’s follow up appointment, it’s supposed to get warmer. There’s even a day expected to reach a high of 0C/32F coming up!
Well, we’ll see what actually happens when the time comes, but I would be most happy for it to NOT drop to those extreme cold temperatures, even if we actually can plug in the truck now!
I really dislike the cold. Especially with so many things breaking down around the house!
If we didn’t have to get the work done on the truck, we could have gotten a new septic pump ordered in.
I think that’s Shop Towel with his head handing over the edge of the cat bed, being used as a bed by several kittens. He may be aggressive with the adults at times, but he’s good with the babies!
Nosy, I see, is cuddled up with him. Now that Nosy has been neutered, it does seem like he’s no longer involved in any aggressiveness that we still see at times.
Anyhow.
Today’s main job was to see if we could get a panel cut into the wall in my husband’s room, to access the plumbing for the tub and shower. After gathering what tools we thought we might need, my daughter flashed a light into the holes for the bathtub taps, to try and see where the wall joints were.
Turns out, they were pretty much right at the pipes.
Then she went to the other side of the wall, while I used the drill with an auger bit and made a couple of holes above the taps, trying to be close to the joists, but not too close, through to the other side of the wall. The first pair of holes was made using one of the narrowest auger bits. Once those were through and I got the go ahead from my daughter on the other side, I did them again, using a larger bit.
Then my daughter cut an opening in the paneling.
We hoped to be able to use the jig saw, but that would have hit the pipes. She ended up doing the first cut across the top, using the saw on her multi tool. It was the only saw small enough. After that, aside from having to start the first inch or so with the multi tool, she was able to use the pull saw.
My brother thought there might be aspenite behind the paneling, but there was no. It was just open joists. At one point, as my daughter was saying away, the panel was flexing so much, it made things almost impossible. I ended up reaching under her with a broom handle to hold it against the paneling to hold it, so she could finally finish the cut.
She wasn’t able to cut all of one side, though. She was a couple of inches short when she hit something. She pulled back the cut piece as much as she could to see, and thought there was a nail or something, in the joist. In the end, she cut everywhere else, then just snapped the panel off.
Finally, we could access the plumbing!
In the end, there was nothing we could do.
My daughter tried to take off the piece for the taps, but it just would not happen. It turned out it was soldered. I ended up taking pictures and sending them to my brother.
We took out the faucet set we have and discovered another problem.
On the right, for the hot water, you can see that wood was gouged out of the joist to make room for the plumbing. There is also a strange pair of right angle beds in the hot water pipe below.
We don’t know why the cold water side is black.
In the middle, however, you can see the problem.
The old fixture is threaded internally.
The new fixture is threaded externally.
In the end, we put everything away, then taped the section of panel that was cut off back over the hole for now.
After a while, my brother was able to look at the photos I sent him, and we ended up talking on the phone.
It turns out that, 40 years ago, it was standard practice to solder plumbing together with lead. The only way we’re going to get that out is to cut it.
After talking about it some more, and getting a look at that bend in the hot water pipe, my brother suggested that we replace the copper pipe with Pex, including the pipe to the shower. We can then get Shark Bite parts and adapters to install the new fixture. The set we have includes a shower head, but we won’t be using that, since we currently have the accessible hand held shower (it has an extra long hose, and a shut off valve under the handle of the shower head).
I don’t know that I want to mess with the pipe for the shower, if I can avoid that. I have no idea how it’s attached at the top, and I don’t want to cut another hole in the paneling to see!
So that was it for today.
Tomorrow, I’ll be going to the hardware store. There’s a guy there that has been most helpful. I can show him the photos and talk to him about what we need. My older daughter says she can cover the cost, though at this point, we have no idea what those would be.
We did get a few other things done today, though it was nowhere near as productive as I would have liked. I have so much I need to do outside, and I’m just not getting to it!
My daughter and I got the last of the winter squash moved from the garage to the root cellar; we’re supposed to reach -3C/27F tonight, and I figured it was time. We did leave the big Crespo squash upstairs, though. It has the most damage to the shell, so we will see about using that as soon as we can. I definitely want to save seeds from this one, so we can grow them again next year.
The tomato paste I was making in the slow cooker out of just San Marzano tomatoes was finally done last night and left to cool until today. I like using the slow cooker for this, but it does take longer. I probably should have cooked it down more, but we were going to need the slow cooker. There was enough somewhat saucy paste to fill two 750ml jars. We’ll just keep those in the fridge to use as needed. We like to just add a spoonful of paste into various things, almost as a seasoning.
I did taste test it and, to be honest, I don’t find the flavour any better or worse than any other tomato sauce or paste we’ve made. I’ll have to get my daughters to try it. I’m not a good judge of such things! 😄
Our Thanksgiving turkey got deboned, and there is now a stock being made from the bones in the slow cooker. It’s as plain as plain can be. Just the bones and water. Not even salt, so that we can use it for the cats as well as for ourselves. We can add seasonings for ourselves, later.
The last of the vegetables that were under the turkey went into a pot, along with the leftover squash, some of the leftover turkey and some of the freshly jarred tomato paste to make a large soup. Between the soup and the rest of the turkey, we won’t need to take anything out of the freezer for a while!
We’re still having to heat water to wash ourselves and anything else, including the dishes. I have found that, if we leave the hot water alone long enough, we do actually get some almost hot water. It takes a long time for one element to heat up a 40 gallon tank.
Another job for tomorrow. Take the elements out of the previous tanks to see if any of them can be used to replace the burnt out one in our current tank. I took a quick look at one of the tanks while I was done there earlier today. The bottom panel is already open and I could see scale built up around the element on the outside.
There’s a reason we go through hot water tanks so quickly!
I’ll have to grab some tools and have at the old tanks. Aside from opening the panels and removing the elements to see how they are, I want to take out the anode rods. At the top of the tank is just a flat cap. There’s nothing to grip. I can’t see how it’s supposed to be removed without digging under it and scratching up the surface of the tank. Of course, nothing I find online is the same as what we’ve got. It’s probably a simple thing, but with how absolutely everything seems to be breaking at once right now… well, let’s just say I’m glad we’ve got a couple of old tanks to practice on!
Our new powered rod isn’t supposed to arrive until Oct. 22, so we have time for that. It’s the element that I really hope we can get replaced.
Meanwhile, the girls are going to be taking on scrubbing the area around the tub as much as they can before treating with with an anti-mold and mildew disinfectant again. Then, once that’s dry, all the exposed area will get painted with the mold and mildew resistant primer. Once that’s dry, we can look into getting the new tub surround ready to install. The most important part being, cutting the holes for the plumbing in the right places.
The tub itself is going to need a whole lot of CLR, too.
It’s going to be downright strange when all this is done, having a tub and surround that isn’t water stained with rust.
I just want to be able to have a real shower again, with water that wasn’t heated in a kettle, first!
Ah, well. Little by little, it’ll get done!
Very little, by very little, with this particular job!
For those who have been following this blog for a shorter time, I’ll give a bit of a back story.
When we moved into this “perfect” house, at the request of my mother, we of course found all sorts of problems all over the place.
One of those was the hot water leaking in the bath tub. The rust stain below showed this was not a new problem.
When we had septic backing up into the basement (again) a few years ago, we had a plumber come in to auger the floor drains. While he was here, I asked him about the leaking tap. He asked me some questions I couldn’t answer, like whether or not the pipes could be access from the front, of if they had to be accessed from the bedroom on the other side of the wall.
There is no access panel, there.
When my father got running water and an indoor bathroom for the house, in the early 70’s, the bathroom walls were covered with waterproof paneling make to look like tiles.
The tub surround was installed on top of this paneling, with arm bars added later on.
The caulking for the tub surround was coming loose, and we had no idea what the state of the caulking on the fake tile paneling underneath was like.
The plumber gave us an estimate of $400 to replace the taps – he thought he could fix them, but we wanted to replace them – but he told us the tub surround would have to be removed, and that was not something he did, so we would need to be prepared to replace that.
With this information in hand, we got a replacement faucet set with level taps in stead of knob style – something better for arthritic hands.
We also picked up a new tub surround, adhesive and caulking.
Which has all just been sitting there all this time.
After the illegal lockdowns and various economic disasters, I eventually called the plumber to ask for a new estimate, but he never called back. Considering all the hits to our finances recently, from now having payments on the truck, replacing multiple desktop computers, etc., it really didn’t matter much.
Of course, over time, the leak just kept getting worse. The strangest thing was that, if only the cold water tap was turned on, the hot water tap would start leaking!
Well, today, it finally happened.
My daughter was just finishing her shower, went to turn off the hot water, and the tap just kept spinning and spinning!
Which bring us to another problem with the plumbing in this old house.
A severe lack of shut off valves.
To shut the water off for the tub, we had to shut off the water for the entire house.
Once she was able to get out of the shower, my daughter started working on taking off the taps and faucet.
The one with more rust on the inside was the hot water tap.
Click through to the next photo, and you’ll see the inside of the faucet.
The rust and scale I can understand, but cobwebs???
My daughter then had to start tearing off the tub surround, starting with the one behind the taps.
That was a messy and difficult job.
We then learned three things.
First, we would have had to access the taps from the other room to be able to replace them. We might still have to.
That will require almost emptying by husband’s bedroom. The only thing that wouldn’t need to move would be his hospital bed.
Then we’d either have to remove an entire sheet of paneling – which is what I think has been done over the years – or cut an access panel. Either way, it’s going to be a major issue for my husband.
Second, the rot in the fake tile paneling is really bad. I expected it to be bad, but… yuck.
No, I’m not going to post picture of it.
The water damage extends all around the tub, but the other two walls are not as bad as we feared.
Still, we’re going to have to cut off at least the bottom 16″ of the paneling (4 “tiles” high), then see how bad the damage is, behind it.
Third, this is going to take a long time to get fixed. We don’t even know what we’re going to need to do to get it all useable, yet, anyhow.
Meanwhile, the entire house is without water.
That meant a trip to the hardware store for a couple of Shark-bite style shut off valves.
My daughter then spent almost 3 hours installing them, with me as her flashlight holding assistant. It was incredibly awkward, and hard to get at.
Once they were finally installed, we added a sealing tape around each end of the valve, then went over that with electric tape, just to be on the safe side. We had to install a shut off valve in the hot water pipe to the laundry sink, and it now leaks every time we turn it on to use the tap. That on is an actual Shark-bite brand, and one end never gripped properly.
The first image above is the cold water pipe. That one had to be installed directly above the sump pump reservoir, which made reaching it a bit precarious. It was the easier one to install, though!
If you click through to the next photo, you’ll see the hot water pipe, which is just off where it branches to the kitchen and laundry, and next to the pipe that goes up to the toilet tank, and next to the furnace duct…
That pipe didn’t have as much play in it, either, and my daughter ended up having to cut off more pipe just to be able to get it into the valve end.
To top it off, there was all the water to deal with. My daughter did the hot water tap first, and after the first cut, the water just wouldn’t stop flowing! We ended up having to drain the hot water tank and open other taps, and still had to kept lifting the pipe at a bend to try and get more water out of the pipe. The cold water pipe did that, too, but not as much as the hot water pipe!
Needless to say, my daughter was feeling wet and gross by the time it was all done.
The important thing, though, is that they work. We could turn the water back on for the rest of the house!
While my daughter was finally able to leave, I stayed to monitor the refilling of the hot water tank. We couldn’t just turn the valve on all the way, as it would drain the pressure tank faster than the well pump could fill it again, which causes problems for the pump.
Yes, that still needs to be replaced, too.
Every now and then, I’d have to shut the valve off completely and let the pump finish filling the pressure tank before opening it up again, to stop the grinding noise it was making!
After the hot water tank had time to fill for a while, my daughter turned its breaker back on, so it could start heating up, too.
Then we had to run all the taps in the house to get the air out of the pipes.
That will be all we do about the tub for today!
While we figure things out there, we’ll all be sponge bathing for the next while – and I can’t even guess how long it will take for us to be able to use the tub and shower again! I supposed if we are at least able to install the faucet set, we could use the tub to wash in, and make sure not to splash. We just won’t be able to use the shower until this is all done.
*sigh*
It’s a pain, to be sure, but right now, I’m just thankful that the rest of the house has water, and it’s just the tub/shower that’s out of commission! We’ll just have to deal with things as they are.
The Re-Farmer 