plumbing

Our 2024 Garden: transplanting shallots, zucca melon, and other progress. Plus, septic problems again!

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

I got a late start to the day, unfortunately. I just didn’t get to sleep until sometime past 3am.

What got me going was nothing pleasant, though. The septic pump was running and not shutting off again. I checked the filter, and it was running dry, so I shut it off. After priming the filter and turning it back on again, it just drained the filter and kept running dry.

We’ve got an old garden hose with a missing male coupling set up in the basement, just for times like this. It’s hooked up to the cold water tap that the washing machine used to be hooked up to, before the laundry set up got moved upstairs. Every now and then, I run it through the drain in the floor, towards the septic tank. There is a bottleneck it always hits, roughly under the basement wall. It takes some wiggling and shifting before the end of the hose can get through what opening is left. Usually, from there, it’s clear to the tank. Lately, though, it’s been hitting another barrier. This morning, I wasn’t able to get through it with the hose. When testing out the septic pump, though, it was working as normal again, so I left it.

I’ll get back to that, later!

Once outside (and after playing with any kittens that would let me!), I started on transplanting shallots with the peppers in the high raised bed. I kept forgetting to do that, and I didn’t want it to be forgotten again!

I considered doing the yellow onions, instead – none of those have been transplanted, yet! – but decided against it. They will form larger bulbs than the shallots, and I figured they would do better with more space than the shallots need.

One thing about the cover being sized to fit the box beds in the east yard: the frame is narrower, but longer, than the high raised bed. Which means there’s contact with the logs in only 4 small spots. This meant I didn’t have to worry about squishing any of the transplants when I put it back on. This cover has fencing wire on it, and a larger mesh. I am hoping that, as the peppers get taller, they can grow into the fencing wire arch, which will support them, while their growing habit should still leave enough light and air for the shallots to grow.

We’ll see if this actually works out!

With those done, the next priority was getting the Zucca melon in, and for that, I had to set up the kiddie pool as a garden bed.

We used it to grow melons last year, so it already has drainage holes in the bottom. I added a fairly thick layer of grass clippings on the bottom. This should act as a bit of a sponge to hold water, before it finally drains out, as it breaks down.

For the soil, I “stole” several wheelbarrow loads from the last bed that needs to be shifted over. The alternative was to push my way through the overgrown grass to the pile of garden soil in the outer yard with the wheel barrow, and sifting each load.

The soil in this bed just needs weeding, not sifting, and most of the weeds had deep tap roots. Aside from the tree roots and a bit of crab grass, it didn’t take long to weed the soil after it was loosened with a garden fork, then shoveling it into the wheelbarrow, where I could get any other weeds and roots I might have missed.

I had to remind myself not to fill the wheelbarrow as much as usual. The soil is still quite moist, making it a lot heavier than usual. All that meant was that it took three loads instead of two, to fill the kiddie pool deep enough.

Finally, the zucca melon could be planted! These can grow melons up to 60 pounds in weight. If they actually grow this year, they should need take up a lot of space! Last year, they were in the bed where the bare root strawberries went last year. The plants never thrived, and what melons began to from, started to rot and die before getting more than 6 or 8 inches long. After prepping the bed for the strawberries, I now know that bed was being choked out by elm roots, too. This won’t happen with the kiddie pool as a raised bed. Last year, the pool was set up and the end of one of the beds I’ve been working on, quite close to the elms and maple. When I cleaned it up in the fall, there were no tree roots in it at all, unlike the fabric grow bags! So hopefully, this year, the Zucca melon will actually have a chance to grow and thrive!

Once that was done, it was time to go inside for lunch. As I was eating, I realized I was hearing the septic pump … and it wasn’t shutting off!

So I hid my food from the cats and headed for the basement. After priming the filter a few times, and it would still run dry, I tried pushing the hose through the floor drain again.

It did not work out very well at all.

First, I couldn’t get past the nearer bottleneck. After much fighting, I finally got it through the opening, but then it hit the second bottle neck, and that was it. It would not go past and into the tank.

Unfortunately, to do this, I was absolutely killing my left arm. Yes, I’m mostly ambidextrous, but if I need to do anything that requires a higher level of control or strength, I use my left arm. It was absolutely brutal on my damaged elbow.

I finally gave up, left septic pump off, and headed back upstairs. The fact that I hadn’t finished eating and was still very hungry did not help!

After cleaning myself up and finishing lunch, I went back at it, this time with a daughter. I still couldn’t get the hose through at the floor drain, and neither could my daughter. We ended up getting the tool kit so we could open the access pipe, instead. Normally, these can just be opened with a special screw cap – bronze, in our case – but that is fused in place. The entire top needs to be removed, and that’s held in place with screw clamps around strip of rubber and… some kind of finely corrugated metal that I think is aluminum.

So we got that pulled off and tried again with running the hose through. It worked much better, this time! We got through the first bottleneck fairly easily, and it was only a bit more effort to get through the second bottleneck. Finally, we were able to push the hose all the way into the tank!

At which point I went outside and opened the lid to take a look.

Do you know that it’s very hard to see anything when looking into a dark tank in bright sunshine? Meanwhile, I was being totally paranoid and holding my glasses against my face every time I tried to lean over and see. Finally, a cloud passed over the sun, and I could see!

But what did I see?

Well, I could eventually figure out where the float was. There’s a lot of gunk floating at the top, but I could see a couple of spot with flowing water in them – that would be water from the weeping tile, since no one in the household was using water at the time. I got my daughter to try wiggling the hose around, but I still couldn’t see it. It was somewhere under the gunk.

What I think is happening is, as the pump runs and the liquid level drops, the float is probably getting hung on something. Something that running the hose through manages to knock loose, finally allowing the float to drop and trigger the pump to stop running.

As I closed up the tank and went back inside, my daughter kept working with the hose. She could actually feel when she managed to knock something out of the way. I turned the water on, and she kept at it for a while. The septic pump turned on while she was doing this, and we could see water flowing through the filter, so this was now running as normal.

After she was done with that, I took over and ran the hose in the floor drain, towards the weeping tile under the new part basement floor. We know the weeping tile in the north corner is somehow messed up. Plus, we get tree roots growing through. We could see the water turn silty while I pushed the hose, with the water running, as far as it could go.

Once that was done, I decided to not bother tightening the cap on the access pipe again, since we will likely be running a hose through there, instead of the floor drain, regularly. So my daughter put away the tools and headed out while I closed things up and hung the hose back up where we store it. There’s quite a bit of water on the floor, with all the rain we’ve been having, the floor is damp or flooded in places, even with all the fans and blowers running.

Our electric bill is going to be brutal. With the equal payment plan, I won’t be surprised of the monthly payments don’t jump quite a bit, and not just because they’re increasing the price per kw, either.

That all took way longer than it should have, and I was very frustrated.

My husband, meanwhile, helped the only way he could… and I’m torn about it.

He used his Amazon credit card to buy me a commercial level drain auger, so we won’t be fighting with a hose. I don’t know that it will clear the nearer bottleneck, though. I fear that is the cast iron pipe collapsing, and that running an auger through would damage it more. That would really mess us up, since repairing that would probably require breaking through the concrete floor in the basement, and excavating between the basement wall and the septic tank outside, to replace it.

*sigh*

I don’t even want to think of it.

That done, and the water flowing through properly again, I needed to destress.

For me, that means manual labour! Yay!

I headed back outside (topped of the cat food for the evening, played with a kitten…) and to the garden.

We had reached the hottest part of the day by then, and I realized I’d forgotten about the melon bed. We have a few small piles of straw mulch from last year that I raided.

That gave me some nicely damp, cool, partially decomposed straw to lay around the melons.

Then I mulched the newly transplanted Zucca melons, too.

The Zucca got watered after transplanting, of course, but after the mulch was laid down, I gave that a good soaking, too. I had considered putting a jug in the middle for watering, like with the pumpkins and drum gourds, but using the kiddie pool as a raised bed, with the grass clipping base, makes that unnecessary. It will take a while for water to drain, so the Zucca roots should find all the water they need before it finished draining.

I soaked down the mulch on the other beds, too.

Last of all, I started working on shifting the next low raised bed. That meant breaking new ground where the bed will be shifted over, and turning the sod, first.

I didn’t get very far. It was just too hot!

So I’ve left it for now.

My current plan is to try going to bed early, and hopefully actually falling asleep, so that I can get an early start tomorrow. This bed should go much faster than the last one, as it’s nowhere near as weed filled. I want to get at least a few hours in, in the morning. It’s supposed to get a lot hotter than today, in the afternoon. Which makes it a good time for us to do our combined birthday/father’s day pizza night, courtesy of my older daughter.

Based on the current forecasts, we’re supposed to get hotter every day until Monday (it’s Wednesday, today), but not get any rain until Saturday evening. After Monday, it will cool down a little, with no other rain in the 10 day forecast.

We shall see.

We’re in the final stretch to get things in the ground! For transplants, it’s just those last few San Marzano tomatoes, the yellow onions and a few shallots, and the Orange Butterfly Flower. Those have to go somewhere where they can be treated as a perennial, and I’m not sure where that will be just yet!

For all the garden plans we made over the winter, we’re basically flying by the seat of our pants right now.

The Re-Farmer

Well, that was … ick

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We still have the fans going in the new basement, and I wanted to check on them. Since the new blower fans are aimed at the new basement stairs, I went through the old basement, which gave me a chance to check how the floors are, with all the rain we’ve been having.

There were a few damps spots starting to show through the concrete, so I opened up the floor drain. The weeping tile under the new basement flows through there, to the septic tank, but there’s no P trap between the floor drain to the septic tank. That allows gasses to back up into the basement, unless we cover the hole with plastic, then put the drain cover over it.

I lifted that up and found the drain was full to the top! There also wasn’t any movement in the water that I could see. Clearly, it was draining at least somewhat, or it would have backed up into the basement.

Between the floor drain and the wall, there is another access to the pipe to the septic tank. The cap is highly corroded, so opening it requires loosening a pair of strap fasteners, then fighting it loose.

We have an old hose with one end cut off that we leave permanently attached to the cold water tap the washing machine used to be hooked up to, just for clearing the drains. Usually, I can just shove the hose through, all the way to the septic tank, then turn the water on to clear away any debris. This time, however, it wouldn’t go through. The other thing we keep handy for times like this is an old wire chimney sweep. One end has a brush attached, while the other has the tip bent back on itself, forming a rounded end. The wire is strong enough, while still being flexible, to punch through just about anything. I had to resort to that, to get through whatever was clogging the pipe, and then I could get the hose through, but without turning the water on, yet.

The water in the floor drain moved a bit, but did not drain.

Hmmm….

When we first discovered we had issues here, we had a plumber auger the pipes, and he pulled a matt of roots out from between the two openings. This is when we realized the weeping tile under the new basement had sand getting in, and tree roots were growing through, all the way past the floor drain. This is something else we now check regularly. Lately, I could see small roots coming through, but nothing major.

With the water not moving out of the floor drain, I reached in to pull at a few visible roots.

They just broke.

After several other attempts just lead to more breaking of roots, I took a look through the other opening. At the bottom, where the floor drain joins the main pipe, I could see a few roots. Nothing much. Still, I reached in and pulled.

And pulled.

And pulled again!

I pulled out a mat of roots, with sand stuck in them, just as big as the one the plumber pulled out, some three years ago!

It still didn’t drain much, though.

So, it was back to using the wire from the old chimney sweep some more, then trying to push the hose through.

I knew I finally succeeded when, not only did the floor drain start to empty, the septic pump turned on moments later!

Once the floor drain was done, I turned the water on and started hosing out the drain from both openings.

Hmm… I didn’t think of it until now. I should have run the hose through the other way, towards the new basement, too. That section is probably full of sand and roots. There’s nothing I can do about the roots, but I could wash away the sand, at least.

But not now.

Once everything seemed to be flowing well again, I closed up the overflow access pipe again, then covered the floor drain. After cleaning up and putting things away, though, I was left with a very wet floor!

So I went and checked on the other basement.

I think the carpet on the steps is finally dry, but I left one blower on it, just in case. I took the other one and set it up in the old basement, to dry the floor there.

I so love these new blower fans! Not only are they safer than the old blower, they are much lighter and easier to set up! Plus, they have power cords long enough that I could plug it right into the outlet, and didn’t have to use an extension cord.

We’ve made a point of clearing those drains fairly regularly, but I guess we had a recent growth spurt of roots coming through! There must be some sort of change in in the pipe between the floor drain and the overflow access, for the sand and roots to build up there, even when it seems like there are almost no roots at all when looking through the openings.

I wonder if this was the ultimate cause of our other drainage issues!

I’m glad I found the mess and cleaned things up. There is some sort of bottleneck in the pipe between the basement and the septic tank, roughly 3 or 4 feet from the overflow access, judging by how much hose it takes to hit it. Whatever it causing it feels very hard and doesn’t get any bigger, even after clearing and hosing the pipe repeatedly. The only way to know for sure what the problem is would be to send a camera though the pipe. That section of pipe is cast iron, so I can think of a few things that could be causing it.

Another reason we need to win a lottery jackpot! If, for example, that pipe needs to be replaced, we’d have to break through the concrete floor to access it. With the state of the walls in that basement, there’s a good chance it would compromise them; they are already crumbling. The weeping tile in the other basement needs to be dealt with, but that is so beyond our means to get done, I don’t want to even think about it. Then there’s all the other stuff, much of which is just getting old and worn house after decades of use.

Well, there’s only so much we can do, and there’s no point in worrying about something outside our control.

I’ll just keep telling myself that.

Meanwhile… I think it’s time for a shower, and more laundry!

Ew.

The Re-Farmer.

Can this day be over, please?

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Good grief, what a day.

Right from the start, it was like everything was going wrong. Just little things, but so many of them!

Not everything was bad, though, so I’ll start with the cuteness.

Both water bowls were bone dry this morning, even though I topped the sun room one up last night.

I also chased a skunk out. The only reason I don’t think we had any racoons last night is because the water bowls were dry, but not dirty. The racoons always leave the water bowls so very dirty!

Of course, a dry water bowl is a warm spot, and the outside one was being taken advantage of by a cat I would really like to see more of. This is the one with one messed up eye, and he seemed to be warming his paws while I was putting the kibble out. He wasn’t sitting or lying in it, like I usually see other cats doing. Just standing in it. He didn’t run away while I put kibble in the tray under the water bowl house, either. When I came back with water, I watched him slowly, cautiously walk down the board we have as a ramp and move aside.

Meanwhile, I did a head count.

33! And I didn’t even see Sad Face anywhere! We’ve definitely got some strangers among us, but honestly, with some of the more feral cats that look so much alike, I really can’t tell which of them are new. Very few of them have distinctive features like one messed up eye.

After I finished with the water and went through the sun room to put away the container, I was very pleased to see One Eye in the sun room – that’s a first, that we’ve seen! He was moving slowly and cautiously, but he did not run off when I came in. Then, after I finished my rounds and came back to tie off the doors and go inside, I found him curled up on one of the cats beds, under the platform.

Before I started this, I did the evening feeding. He was still in the sun room and still moving about cautiously. I was actually able to reach out and put a hand on his back. He slunk away, but didn’t run away, which is very encouraging. The thermometer in the sun room was reading 18C/64F, so I do hope he comes back to enjoy the warmth, some cozy beds, food and water.

So that was one of the highlights of the day. I’ll take what I can get.

Among the things that went wrong today is, the toilet started acting up again. I was in the middle of doing several things at once, so the timing was frustrating! But I got it clear – I thought – cleaned up and went back to the other stuff I was doing.

One of those things was starting some pickled eggs for our Easter basket. I boiled more eggs than I was after, and only the ones that peeled the nicest got done. I ended up doing three different types; one with beet brine from our own pickled beets, one with turmeric and one with soy sauce. Those are now ready and sitting in the fridge until we put our basket together for blessing on Saturday. I won’t be taking it to church for blessing, since my mother gives me grief for having such a big basket. I should just have a tiny one, like hers. 🙄 So we will bless it ourselves.

Anyhow.

That got done little by little, with other things being chipped away at while waiting for the eggs to cool, then to cool down in cold water, etc. Finally, I was able to make myself some breakfast, which I ate in the cat free zone, aka: the living room.

Which is when my husband showed up to let me know that one of our daughters had been trying to plunge the toilet for the last 15 minutes.

I’m not sure what he expected me to do about it. He probably was just letting me know, but his timing really sucked! 😄

Once I was able to, I went into the basement to check on the septic pump. I know it’s supposed to take a long time for both tanks to fill, but between everyone’s water use, doing laundry, dishes and, of course, the phantom flush we still haven’t found the cause of, I know it’ll fill faster than typical. I turned it on only long enough to confirm I could here no water going through the pipe.

Meanwhile, my daughter used drain cleaner. We’ve got the “max gel” type that’s supposed to be able to handle the worst clogs, letting it sit for the maximum recommended time, and so on.

It didn’t work.

It will drain, eventually, but not enough for a proper flush.

Meanwhile, I still hadn’t been able to pick up more of that enzyme drain and pipe maintenance stuff that worked where the drain cleaner didn’t. The town where I knew they had some in stock is also where we went to get our taxes done last year, and we need to get those done so we can use my caregiver tax credit to pay for a plumber to clear the pipe that’s causing all these problems, and to get the pill switch replaced in the septic tank.

We just had one last thing to print out, from my husband’s medical insurance provider, which is not the same company that his disability payments come from. It used to be the same company, but his employer changed providers after he went on disability, so his disability payments still come from the original company, but his health care coverage is now with the new company.

So he logged on, found the information he needed, and tried to print it out.

The printer is in my “office” corner of my room, which is on wifi.

It didn’t work.

After trying several times, my husband finally saved it to pdf, put it on a thumb drive, and I tried to print it from my computer. Then we did it again, because the first file he saved was 22 pages! The correct file was only 4 pages.

Also, without health insurance, we would have paid over $8000 for my husband’s medications. That’s actually down from last year, since at least one of his meds, Ozempic, is now covered 100% by our province’s pharmacare program. His health insurance covers that one only for “reasonable dosages”. My husband’s dosage is so high, they won’t cover it. This is expensive stuff, even at lower doses. Gotta wonder about all those people taking it for weight loss!

But I digress.

So I open the file on my computer and try to print it out.

First, I kept getting “not responding”. Then it wouldn’t print, and just said “error.” What error? Who knows.

Now, I have printed things out since getting the new computer, and had no issue connecting to the printer at all. Now, suddenly, it just wouldn’t.

My older daughter came over to help out, since this printer is actually hers. We even tried to print direct from media, but for some reason, the option to print a pdf no longer exists! Just for photos. She kept trying with the printer, while I kept trying to figure things out in the settings on my computer.

Windows 11 really sucks.

Windows 11 control panel really sucks.

I tried troubleshooting it and, while it was going through that, a message popped up saying the troubleshooter has been moved and would soon not be available…

So… why was it even there as an option? And how are we supposed to troubleshoot something if we have to figure out how to find the new location for the troubleshooter it?

Not that it mattered. It “fixed” the problem, but in the control panel, it still just said “error” under the printer. Of course, we kept trying to print in between all these different things, and again, all it would do is tell us “error”.

Finally, I decided to try removing the printer, then adding it back.

Printer removed, select add device…

The computer couldn’t find it.

We went through so many different ways to try and add the printer back, but the computer just wouldn’t “see” it anywhere.

One of the options was “my computer is older. Help me find it” followed by a “next” button, but that didn’t work, either.

So we fussed with both the computer and the settings on the printers, and I kept trying again.

Then suddenly, it was there. The computer could “see” it!

I have no idea what I did that made the difference.

I didn’t care by then. I just selected it, and the computer installed and finally connected with the printer.

Then it was crunch time: would it actually print?

It did!

Sort of.

This time, I had a different problem. A problem I had the last time I tried to print something out.

The software printed on the page as if it were landscape, instead of portrait, squeezing everything to fit on one side.

It did this when I tried to print out a knit pattern for my daughter. No matter what I did to the settings, when it came time to print, it was turned the wrong way and squeezed to fit on side of the page.

After all this time fighting with it, I didn’t care anymore. The data could be read, and that was all I needed.

That done, I called the tax preparer and arranged to drop off our stuff, then finally headed out.

This town is about a half hour drive from us, so not too bad. The weather is nicer today, at least, though that wind is still brutal. At the tax place, I saw they had a drop box for all the people doing like we are; just leaving our stuff with them to work on later. We’ll get a call then they’re done. I’ll have to pick up the paperwork and bring it home for my husband to sign, but that’s the closest thing to a delay we’ll have.

Then it was off to the hardware store. I go here so rarely, I took advantage of it to just look around.

They have an excellent and well stocked canning section! 😁

When I got to the display I was looking for, I decided to get three bottles of the stuff. They had others for maintaining the tank itself, and even another brand of the drain and pipe maintenance stuff but, in the end, I stuck with what we already know works!

It’ll be so good when we can finally get a plumber to clear that pipe!

Then I kept wandering around the store. I did completely avoid the power tools section, though. Too many things there I want to buy! For me, being around power tools is a lot like going to a yarn store. I want to buy all the things! Power tools are a lot more expensive, though! 😄😂😄

It turns out it was a good thing I took my time. After I was all done and about to message my family to let them know I was about to head home, I found a message from one of my daughters. I’d used most of a flat of eggs for the pickled eggs, and she was letting me know she was about to finish the rest of them. So I made a quick stop at the grocery store for a dozen – I’ll be getting more at Costco tomorrow – and even remembered to grab some butter. I probably should have grabbed more; they house brand was on sale for $4.99, and not even Costco’s butter is that cheap. No surprise that they had a quantity limit! I decided to just get one, though.

When I got home and was pulling into the garage, I saw my younger daughter coming out. My husband had a prescription refill ordered for delivery, and they guy had just called to let us know he was close – something we requested, since our gate is usually closed and locked. So my daughter met him at the gate, and closed and locked it for me.

The girls kept fighting with the toilet while I was gone, and hadn’t had much luck. The honeypot was set up again! Since I got three bottles of the stuff, I want to use it in the drains for the tub, kitchen sink and laundry drain, too. For “slow drains”, the instructions say to use 8 oz, three days in a row. After that, daily maintenance is a couple of tablespoons, if I remember correctly.

Hopefully, it has done the job by now.

Excuse me while I go see if we are still stuck using the honeypot or not!

Well crud. Toni just puked a hairball on top of a sleeping Cheddar’s belly, on my bed. Who didn’t wake up until I cleaned the mess. At least he was on top of their big towel, and not directly on my bedding!

Ew.

I really want this day to be over!

The Re-Farmer

A good start to the day, and some less good stuff

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Considering what time I made my last post, I’d say it was an excellent start to the day – we have a toilet that flushes again, and it’s still flushing. 😄 In fact, it’s working better than ever.

We have got to find more of that bio stuff!!! If I can’t find it locally again, I’m even willing to Amazon it.

I should call the plumber back and leave another message, saying we don’t have an urgent need for him to come out anymore. Getting that main drain pipe cleared still needs to be done, but it can wait a bit.

It’s still rather chilly out there, but we’re supposed to reach a high of 4C/39F this afternoon. With a bit more melting, we should be able to drive into the yard again, which means finally being able to load up the truck and do a dump run. The dump is open tomorrow, and highs are supposed to drop below freezing again after today (so much for the long range forecasts have highs above zero for the rest of the month!), which means our skating rink driveway is going to have a fresh layer of ice on it. At least it’s not the roads! There are some patches, of course, but for the most part, the gravel roads are clear of snow and ice.

I didn’t bring our water jugs to do our refills when I did my mother’s shopping yesterday, so I’m debating going into town today. The thing is, I’m going to meet up with the Cat Lady with Ginger some time this week – she’s not sure what day she can meet me, yet, but assures me it’ll be this week. Hopefully, they won’t have any more disasters like losing part of their roof in the high winds we got a few days ago! Since I’ll be meeting her at a half way point that’s close to a Canadian Tire, I would rather wait until then. Their refills are almost half the price as locally, plus they have a sanitizing station for the insides of the jugs. If we manage to do a dump run tomorrow, though, I might just combine trips. We’ll see.

I don’t mind hanging onto Ginger a bit longer, but he’s still being harassed and bullied, so the sooner he can be adopted out, the better.

*sniff*

Speaking of cats, check out this crowd at feeding time this morning.

If you look closely at the black and white cat on the left (Adam), you can see something in her fur. That’s a big matt of burrs! She also has some stuck in her tail. Yesterday evening, the tip of her tail was actually stuck to the burrs on her hip!

The problem is, like all the other females (including the three around her), they won’t let us near them. Even Junk Pile, who for a short time came to me for cuddles after she lost her litter, won’t let me touch her anymore.

Today, however, I had some success with Adam!

While she was eating on the roof, I came up behind her and put my hand on her back. Normally, she’d notice me and run off before I could touch her. This time, she was startled and looked at me, but then kept eating. So I started giving her shoulder rubs – and she let me! For a little while, at least. Then she moved out of reach. No matter! That was the most contact we’ve managed to get with her, ever!

In the back, on the right, you can see a tuxedo. That’s another one we can’t get near, so I’m assuming it’s female, too. That’s the one with one damaged eye. I was able to get a fairly clear view of it this morning, and half of the pupil is looking brownish now. I suspect that eye will be lost. The cat doesn’t seem to be in any discomfort, but cats are weird that way. I remember when we had Ginger in the sun room, waiting for his appointment to remove his leg, and Ginger was rolling around on the floor, leg flopping and bending all over the place, like it was nothing!

Speaking of eyes…

We need to keep an eye on the Wolfman (formerly Pom Pom). Yesterday, the girls noticed one of his eyes was red and had swelling around it. I haven’t been able to get a look at him today. It’ll take two people to check it out properly, and maybe apply some eye drops, or assess if this is going to require a vet trip.

My daughter also asked me to keep an eye out for one of the “printer babies”. That’s the term they use for all the white and grey cats, collectively, since they can be so hard to tell apart. When she was dumping out the cat litter behind the outhouse, she saw one through the trees, hop-walking while keeping one back leg off the ground. I hadn’t seen anything like that when I fed them last night, nor did I see any limping or favouring of limbs this morning, so I hope that whatever was bothering the cat healed up. The alternative explanation is, I’m simply not seeing that cat at all.

Well, I got a bit of good news from my husband, while I was writing this! He tried looking up the drain maintenance stuff on Amazon, but only found another brand. It was marketed as “green”, but I couldn’t see anything on the label about what was in it that made it work. I didn’t throw away the empty bottle of the stuff we used, so he was able to look it up by brand. It turns out another branch of the hardware store I bought it from has plenty in stock. It’s only an extra 10 minute drive away – and the dump is about 1/3rd of the way there, so it would be convenient to keep on going, after stopping at the dump.

If I can get the truck into the yard tomorrow. We really, really need to do a dump run, but the path to the garage is even more slippery now than ever!

The Re-Farmer

It worked!

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It’s almost 1am, but I just had to write this post!

I hoped the plumber would have called while I was at my mother’s.   When he hadn’t called by the time I got home, I called again and left another message.  This time I mentioned we had only the one bathroom, and were using a honeypot.

No call.  Which probably means they are really busy.

With the drain cleaner having no effect, and the plunger just splashing and making a mess, we were getting pretty frustrated.

Then I remembered we might have another option to try.  After looking around, I found this stuff.

There wasn’t a lot left in the bottle.  We’d been using it for a while, but when I tried to get more, I couldn’t find it.  Even the employee that tried to help me had never seen it before, though she did still try to find it for me.  Then we just forgot to use what we had left.

I dumped the last of the bottle into the toilet bowl, then left it for several hours.

Just a little while ago, I tried plunging again, and it actually worked!  We have a flushing toilet again!!!

We have seriously got to find more of this stuff.

It also confirms for me that the root of the problem is the main drain pipe itself.  Too many decades of grime coating the inside.

So we definitely still need to get it cleaned out, or it’s going to clog up again. 

Plus we need to stock up on this stuff and use it regularly!!!  It’s like magic!

The Re-Farmer

Time to call the plumber, and slip sliding away!

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It’s a bit nippy out there this morning. As I write this, we’re at -11C/12F, with a wind chill of -25C/-13F. We still have high winds, but not as bad as yesterday. I do see fallen branches around the inner yard, but not in areas we can get to to clean up, until the snow is gone. We’re looking at a possible high of -7C/19F this afternoon. Not bad for going out to help my mother with her errands.

Over the past few days, we had some rain, then the high winds and cold, and last night we got a light dusting of snow. The end result?

Our driveway and the flooded parts of the paths are a skating rink!

You can see where they were skidding around while trying to cross the ice! It’s frozen solid now; no need for rubber boots this morning, that’s for sure!

I counted 28 cats today, and they are definitely taking advantage of sun room to get out of the wind. Looking out the bathroom window, I was really wishing I had my phone with me to get a picture. On the platform above the heat lamp, there was at least 8 or 9 cats, all smashed together, looking at the window, creating a forest of necks, heads and ears sticking out of a furry mass! There were more in a pile on the other half of the platform, all curled up around each other on the self warming mat. It was adorably funny!

What isn’t funny is, we’re going to have to call a plumber.

For the past while, our toilet hasn’t been flushing well. Almost, but not quite, clogging. I tried plunging it last night, but with no actual clog, all I was doing was splashing water around. What I think the actual problem is, the drain pipe from under the bathroom to the septic outlet needs to be augured. When the drain for our washing machine started backing up, we had a plumber come in and he augured the pipe from under the kitchen to the corner under the bathroom. It’s likely the first time that was done since the addition was built, and we got running water in the house. Which means the other length to the septic tank has probably never been cleaned, and likely has 50 years of gunk accumulated inside.

Well, we’ll find out soon enough. After I did as much as I could, one of my daughters went to use the bathroom, and it was clogged. The weird thing, though, is that the bowl keeps filling. We knew we had some sort of phantom flush. Every now and then, the tank would suddenly start refilling, even though no one had flushed, but I didn’t realize it was leaking into the bowl. We’ve got a tall, mobility friendly toilet, and the water level in the bowl has always been very low. When we replaced the innards of the tank this past summer, we were able to increase the level a bit, but not much. Frankly, I think the low water level certainly wasn’t helping.

Now, we’re actually having to bail the water out of the bowl, because it just keeps filling, ever so slowly!

Meanwhile, no amount of plunging made a difference. I even got our plumber’s snake out, but it can’t get around the U bend.

We do have toilet-safe drain cleaner, and gave that a try, but it did absolutely nothing.

So, we set up the honey pot in the bathroom to use until a plumber can get here. Much preferable to making our way through the slippery paths to a bone-chilling cold outhouse! I’ll give the plumber a call after I’m done writing this, then make sure to leave the gate open when I leave for my mother’s. Our plumber has 24/7 emergency services, but none of us were up to that. Hopefully, clearing the pipes will be enough to fix the problem, and he won’t find some other, bigger problem on top of that!

Why does this stuff always seem to happen in the winter?

One more odd thing that I’ve noticed before, but was never quite sure of until now. I heard the septic pump going off this morning. Obviously, no one flushed the toilet, and no other water was being used anywhere, because everyone was in bed, and it was about 15 minutes or more since I’d bailed water out of the toilet bowl. Which means we’ve got water leaking into the septic tank enough to trigger the pump. Granted, we’re going to need to get the tank emptied, once the snow clears enough to make it accessible again. I know the solids side of the tank must be getting pretty full. The liquid side has a float to trigger the pump, so it gets emptied regularly. It just empties more often, the fuller the solids side gets, since there’s less room for the liquid. Still, just how much water is leaking into there, that it should trigger the pump like that? This is something that’s been bugging me pretty much since we’ve moved here but, until now, I was always second guessing myself, thinking that maybe I just didn’t hear someone flushing the toilet or using a sink somewhere. My bedroom is right above where the septic pump is, so I can hear that, but I can’t hear if someone’s using water elsewhere in the house. This time, I can be 100% sure that no one was using water anywhere. Talking with my daughter about it, just a little while ago, she wondered if the phantom flush leak is just a bit slower than the leak into the bowl.

Definitely something to tell the plumber about.

Time to make that phone call, and then start heading out to my mother’s!

The Re-Farmer

Finally fixed!

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The hot water tap on our kitchen faucet has been dripping for quite a while.

When we replaced the entire tap and faucet set, choosing a design that allowed us to fit out large stock pot under it, the cold water connector hose needed replacing. There is a lack of shut-off valves in our plumbing, so when I got a new connector hose, I made sure to get the type with a built-in shut-off valve, and hot one for the hot water, too.

The hot water hose, however, was fine and did not need replacing. So the second new hose, with the shut-off valve, was set aside.

You probably see where this is going.

In order to fix the leaking tap, we would have to close the main shut-off valve from the pressure tank. Which means no water for the house.

Which is why the drip didn’t get fixed.

We even took advantage of it and would put containers that needed to soak before washing, under the drip, where the container would soon be filled.

The drip, however, has been getting worse and eventually became more of a trickle than a drip.

So the first thing that needed to be done was to replace the connector hose with the new one with the built-in shut-off valve. That way, the hot water to the dripping tap could be closed, but the rest of the house could still have water.

Of course, this was not an easy job. It should have been, but it wasn’t.

You see, someone – most likely my mother, in her younger days – painted the inside of the cupboard under the sink.

Including the copper water pipes.

And the connectors.

My daughter had to cut through what turned out to be layers of paint to cut the copper pipe. The connector hose may still be good, but it’s painted into place. This was old, oil based paint, too, which gives an idea of how long it’s been there!

Once the connector hose was cut off, she then spent at least half an hour trying to scrub the paint off the end of the pipe, as well as smooth the inside edges of the pipe, which were too jagged from being freshly cut, to install the new connector hose.

My daughter is the only person in the household physically able to crawl under there, but she’s pretty broken, too, so it was quite painful. All I could do was hand her things and keep the kittens away.

It did get done, though. I turned the main water back on so it could be tested, and everything worked.

She could finally shut off just the hot water, and start taking the tap apart.

This is the cartridge she pulled out, AFTER I scrubbed it in the bathroom sink.

The part between the two black O rings was completely black, like what is still in the crevices of the white plastic. The metal inside the hole is supposed to be silver.

When we shock the hot water tank with hydrogen peroxide, which requires shutting the water off to the hot water tank and partially draining it, the water runs black when we next use it. Not only was this cartridge all black, but the space it sat in was all black, too. My daughter cleaned out as much of that as she could, while I cleaned the cartridge.

There was the possibility that it would stop leaking after getting all cleaned up, so after I took a picture of the cartridge, plus the numbers on the bottom, she put it all back together, and turned the water on.

There was nothing.

She turned on the cold.

Nothing.

She had mentioned that the pressure was low when she first tested it, but now, nothing was getting through at all. In fact, she had thought I’d turned the main shut-off valve, off again.

On a hunch, I started taking off the end of the faucet, where the aerator is.

Though the taps were off, water started to spray out as I unscrewed it! Once I got it off, we could see the problem. The screen inside was completely full of black gunk!!

Without the aerator, suddenly water could flow again!

I went and scrubbed the aerator in the bathroom sink while my daughter fiddled with the kitchen sink.

Once the aerator was returned, we ran the hot water for a bit, then shut it off.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

*sigh*

Well, it was worth a shot. At least it wasn’t a trickle anymore.

After all that, my daughter went to shower while I headed into town.

There are 2 hardware stores in town. One, I won’t go to anymore, after they kicked me out for being medically exempt from wearing a mask during the illegal lockdowns and mask mandates. (Yes, they actually were illegal, and there are many court cases going through the system now. I don’t think the governments have won one, yet.) I didn’t even want to go into the store to shop, but had gone to the cash desk by the doors to pay for a car wash. The location got blacklisted as unsafe to go to by many others who could not wear masks. After how badly they treated their loyal customers, none of us are going back there anymore.

The other hardware store, however, was fantastic, so I go there all the time now, even though they are a smaller store and have a much smaller inventory.

When I got there, I had someone offering to help me right away, and I showed her the picture of what I needed. She found the part for me on the shelf. The package number was different from the number on the cartridge itself, but they were in clamshell packages, making them easy to open and confirm the numbers there. To my shock, one cartridge cost almost $25!!

Then she realized it was a Moen product.

Moen has a lifetime guarantee on their products.

Which means I should be getting a replacement cartridge for free.

She ended up getting the manager over to talk to me about it. It turns out they have a stock of replacement parts that are sent to them for free, to be used for these sorts of times. What was on the shelf is stuff they have to pay for, so they couldn’t give those out.

He looked in their supply, but they did not have the cartridge I needed.

He then recommended I try the other hardware store, or another place I’d never been to before. As far as I knew, they were mostly a lumber and landscaping place.

When I said I wouldn’t go to the first place, he didn’t even blink, and said to try the other place. I’ve had this manager help me a number of times, and I get the impression he hears that a lot.

Well, I’ve been wanting to check this place out for a while, and if they had plumbing supplies, this was as good a time as any.

Oh.

My.

Goodness.

This is going to be a dangerous place for me to go to, with money!

Yes, their focus is definitely on their huge yard, filled with lumber and landscaping supplies. The store itself is relatively small, but covers all the bases for basic hardware supplies. I had no idea there was a third hardware store in town! And I’ve known about this place for years. I’ve even gone to their website, which turned out basically be a single splash page.

I didn’t see the cartridges I needed in their plumbing section, so I went to the counter. I explained what I needed, and that the other hardware store thought they might have inventory of the free replacement part I needed.

It took him a while, but he did find the part. He’d never had to check the number on the cartridge itself before, and they are darn hard to see when you can’t open the packaging!

Then he asked me how many I needed. I’d hoped to buy a spare, until I’d seen the $25 price tag, so I told him I needed one, but if I could have a spare, that would be great!

So he gave me two! Since I didn’t have the packaging product number, he said to try it out, and if it didn’t fit, bring it back and he’d help find the right one.

He was really nice about it, too.

That done, I ran a couple more errands, then headed home. As soon as everything was put away, my daughter started on the tap.

Which was easy to do, now that it has its own shut off valve!

It took some fussing, but she got it in and put back together. Then there was the test!

She ran the water for a bit, then shut off the tap.

Drip.

…

…

…

Nothing! It’s fixed!!

It was a big, messy, painful and frustrating job for my daughter, but she got it done. I’m so grateful for her being able to do it. Otherwise, we would have had to call in a plumber to replace that connector hose, or keep having to shut off the main water valve and leaving it off until it was fixed.

She did a great job!

As for me, I want to get a look at that aerator and see if I can take it apart to clean it, like we have to do with the one in the bathroom. That one builds up with scale and rust. This one would have that, too, but now we know the black stuff that’s in the pipes after we shock the hot water tank is more of a problem in the kitchen.

Ah, the joys of being on a well! 😆

The Re-Farmer

So many! and… no wonder we were having problems

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I counted 26 this morning!

It always amazes me how many of the cats have a preference for eating under the water bowl shelter. At one point, I counted 5 under there.

They also really appreciate that sheet of insulation under the kibble house in the winter. Every now and then, I’ll walk past the back of it and see a whole bunch of noses peaking out from under the back wall, where there is a much smaller gap.

I’ve been seeing Rosencrantz again and, unfortunately, she is looking pregnant, too. She had a really early litter last year, though not as early as Junk Pile did this year, and lost it. She went on to have a late second litter with 3 white and greys, Pinky, with his unique patches of mixed orange and grey fur, and a tortie.

For the third day in a row, Junk Pile followed me around while I was doing my rounds, all the way to the sign cam, and let me pick her up and carry her back to the house. She rode calmly in my arms, the back of her head nuzzled against my face. What a massive change in personality! I’ll take it, though. Hopefully, it means we’ll be able to catch her and get her spayed this year.

On a completely different note…

I made it to the Walmart with my mother’s car yesterday. I’m happy to say it ran well, and the roads that were so treacherous just a few days ago are now clear.

One of the things I was able to pick up was a universal fill valve and flapper kit for the toilet. We’ve been having issues for a while now, because … well… see for yourself.

That bit of white hose is almost completely blocked. It was taking forever for the tank to refill after flushing. The flapper would also get stuck slightly open, which meant the water was draining almost faster than it could be refilled. We would have to hold the lever down until the bowl was completely emptied, or the flapper wouldn’t close properly. The flow of water was so slow, it often wouldn’t finish flushing, so we’d have to wait 5 or 10 minutes to flush again.

The flapper couldn’t be replaced; there is something very different about it, and my daughter couldn’t even see how it was attached, but her sister scrubbed out as much of the gunk as she could, and it is working much better. The tank refills so much faster now! The only thing we have to tweak is how much water is in the bowl. For some reason, it has always been very low, and this old valve doesn’t seem to have any way to adjust water levels for the bowl; just the tank. Getting that adjusted will help a lot with reducing the clogs and slow drains we’ve had the entire time we’ve lived here! My daughters are also planning to scrub the inside of the tank as best they can, but it’s lines with Styrofoam insulation, which we have to be careful not to damage. I’ll have to look for the septic safe anti-iron tank tablets again. The last few times I’ve looked, they were out of stock. I’m hoping to avoid having to order online.

Oh, that reminds me. I made a quick stop at the post office on my way out, yesterday, and my new, low limit credit card was in. Once I was home again, I had to call the toll free number to activate it. Of course, the guy I spoke to had a whole spiel he had to give after activating it, to try and sell me insurance, so if I loose my job or something, the balance will be paid. Of course, I was laughing at that, since I cannot get a job. When I mentioned that I want to keep the limit low and just use the card to rebuild my credit rating, he finished off the call with some advice. He gave me the date for my billing cycle, which is the 7th. My intention was to use the card at the end of the month, for gas and groceries, when we do our city shopping, then pay it off right away. He suggested I wait until about 2 days before the due date, which would still be within the 21 day interest free grace period. Waiting to pay until just before the next billing cycle improves the credit rating faster. It would also be helpful to include regular automated payments taken from the card. This shows that the card is actually being used regularly. With the card I have, gas, groceries and automatic payments have a 1% cash back, while everything else has a .5% cash back. I don’t have anything I want to put on automatic payment, though. With our utilities, I like to pay manually, because I always over pay a bit, to build up a credit. That way, if we are ever in a pickle or things just get really tight for some reason, we could have a month or two of reduced payments, or even no payments at all, to free funds up in the budget.

Well, we’ll see how it goes.

What a difference!

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I made a trip to the dump, then into town and, by the time I got back, it was time to top up the kibble trays and water bowls.

The bitty baby seems to have no problem being outside in general. It may be tiny, but it seems to have very good insulation! It definitely has developed a thick winter undercoat already. I was able to pick it up and pet it, but only briefly. I’d just finished with the food and water and wanted to make sure it had a chance to eat, before the bigguns’ inhaled it all.

Would you look at the size differences!! In the tray are four kittens from three litters. The grey and white is from the pump shack litter that had been the youngest before the bitties showed up. The white and orange butt just visible on the left is from Rosencrantz’s litter, so we’ve got four different litters represented here.

Meanwhile…

At the hardware store, I was able to find some more of the pipe maintenance stuff to use regularly and hopefully avoid another block. This stuff uses enzymes to help break down any grease and whatnot coating the pipes, so it could potentially even improve things. They had some of the iron fighting toilet tabs that I was unable to find when I was doing the monthly shopping in the city. It took some hunting, but I did find a couple of boxes of screw eye hooks that we can use to better secure the tarp covering the hole in the shed roof. I went looking through several stores for an outdoor dial type thermometer to put into the cats’ house, but could only find liquid thermometers, and there’s no way we’d be able to read one of those through a window. Apparently, outdoor thermometers are a seasonal thing. At least in our neck of the woods. That’s okay. I’ll just grab the one off the squash tunnel that we won’t be using next year. I’m very curious to see what the temperature is in the cats’ house compared to outside, both during the day, when the terrarium bulb is off, and after dusk, when it’s on.

Our highs over the next 4 days are supposed to get a bit milder, and not very windy. That will be a good time to see what we can do with the carport pieces we’ve found. I would love to find a way to set it up in the corner over the window into the old basement. Even if we only use half of it. A lot would depend on whether or not we can secure it from the wind. Oh… maybe that’s not a good spot, though. If it’s there, then we won’t be able to use the telescoping roof snow shovel. Last year, that side of the entry roof accumulated a drift of snow several feet thick in places!

Hmmm. We’ll have to think about that.

The Re-Farmer

Holy Smokes! It’s done! (plus amazing news!)

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So I emailed the plumber earlier, not expecting to actually hear from him until Monday.

He called less than 2 hours later. After he got our location, he said he’d be here in about 20 minutes.

I don’t think it took him that long!

After checking the pipe out in both basements, they got to work and brought out the auger. (His assistant was a guy that spoke Ukrainian, and seemed to have almost no English. Likely a war refugee.) They sent that thing well past where the block was – he could tell when they hit it. Given the age of the pipes, he said the block was likely really, really old, hardened kitchen grease, and all the things that go along with it.

After they augered the pipe, he went to the laundry drain and used the super industrial drain cleaner we’d finally tried. When I saw it, I mentioned that to him and said that, when that didn’t work, we knew we had to call in a plumber! He was nodding his head before I even finished. If that stuff doesn’t work, no amount of drain cleaner will do it.

Once that was in, we had to test it out. We ran water, and it seemed fine but, from the kitchen sink, it was a problem only when we had to pour out large amounts of water at once, not just from the tap running. The kitchen is far enough away from the tanks and pumps that there just isn’t that much water or pressure coming out of the tap. I ended up filling one sink a couple of inches, while also having water in a container, then draining the one sink while dumping water down the other at the same time, while he poured water into the laundry drain.

When I came around, there was water puddling under the washing machine.

It was also smoking.

The water, I mean. The puddle of water under the drain was smoking.

Remember that industrial strength drain cleaner I mentioned?

Yeah, there was still some in the pipe, and it leaked out with the water, and was smoking.

He had to pull the washer and drier out, so he could see what was going on. After pouring water into the laundry drain again, he discovered the P trap was leaking.

And smoking.

After fiddling with it a bit to see if he could stop the leak, he ended up just cutting it out and replacing it.

While he was doing that, I brought over some old towels that he used – while wearing gloves – to wipe up the puddle. By the end of it, two towels went straight into a garbage can that I brought over, so there was no chance of coming in contact with this stuff.

After that, a new P trap was installed, we waited a bit, then tested it again. This time, he took one of the hoses off the washing machine and ran water straight into the drain.

No leaking!

Then I did the double sink thing again, while he ran water into the laundry drain.

No leaking, and no backing up.

The real test, of course, will be doing a test run of the washing machine, which we will do later. He also recommended using drain cleaner regularly, especially over the next few weeks, to keep the pipes clear of built of grime. Time to get more of that septic friendly drain maintenance stuff we had been using for exactly that purpose!

After doing some more mopping up, the washer and drier were put back, and they were off.

The final bill was higher than when he cleared our septic drain, as I was afraid it would be. The drain clearing plus 1 hour was a set rate, plus the cost of part, and it came to just under $400. With everything being so much more expensive now, though, I’m not actually surprised. However, we had enough squirreled away that I could pay the bill, and not have to go into the money for the tree guys. We actually did have 30 days to pay the bill, but I wanted to get that done and over with. I hate owing money!

Oh, my goodness!!!!

I am texting with the cat lady as I write this. She just gave me the most amazing news!

The two bitty babies she rescued for us are soon to be adopted! They’re getting their vaccines next week, and they’ll be in their new home at the end of November! Someone who recently lost her two 18 year old cats is adopting them both.

I am just so incredibly excited to hear that! Plus, after she has adopted out another cat she’s fostering, she’ll have room for 2 more of ours for placement.

Plus, the 2 spays and a neuter she still has planned for us.

All this, while waiting for her upcoming organ transplant…

The cat lady is just so amazing!

Also, she just informed me that Cabbages actually allows their dog to pick her up and carry her upstairs to her bed. I would love to see pictures of that!!!

Okay, this day is ending on a really fabulous note – even with a hit to the budget!

I’m just so happy right now!

The Re-Farmer