Septic Troubles

 Ever since the beginning of December I have been having trouble with water overflowing into my laundry room area each time the washing machine emptied after its cycle. I would squeegy it out each time, but it was quite a bother. We also smelled a really bad smell in the kitchen, especially when we were washing dishes. No matter how much I scrubbed and cleaned it would not go away. On Clancy's birthday we invited Mark and Carol over for breakfast and a small birthday party for Clancy. I asked Mark to bring his snake to help unplug the line for my washing machine. Little did we know that that was just the tip of the iceberg and we had a major septic clog going on. When the snake didn't even slightly touch the problem, it was time to start digging and I must say they struck gold... grey gold!! We got to know much more about the septic in our house. The kitchen, laundry, and an outside bathroom that is seldom used, empty to the city septic through its own piping and area. The other two bathrooms empty through a completely separate area. The area that was clogged was thankfully the kitchen side, so it was just a lot of grey water, but boy howdy is grey water stinky too~!

Digging for the good stuff

Mark, Rudi, and Myles all took turns digging down about three feet.

Intently studying the problem

And it looks like we struck gold!!

Here it all comes.

 The cement pipe had gotten a hole in it and the pipe had become filled with dirt and roots from the mango tree. We think that this happened MANY years before we arrived here and that the septic was backing up that whole time. I doubt anyone else used this side of the house as much as we have.

Myles and another fella replaced the cement pipe with a nice new plastic one.

Ready to bury the new pipe.

Pieces of the old cement pipe. You can see just how stuffed it
was with dirt and roots.

All clean and new

Meanwhile, back in the house we couldn't use the kitchen sink or that side of the house for 24 hours, so that the glue could dry on the new pipe, but life does go on. I washed dishes in the bathroom. Don't worry I sanitized the bathroom before washing!! Always a multi tasker, I had Peter on the pot while I washed!!! You will have to watch for him on his little potty in the next few blogs. He is showing up all over the place sitting on that thing!!!

Washing dishes, a la bathroom style!!