Septic Celebration

What is the proper way to celebrate getting your septic system working again?  Champagne?  Cartwheels?  Dancing? 

After a week, yes, a WEEK of using the barn toilet and jumping in the pool instead of the shower, we are finally able to use the house toilets.  No more laying awake at 2 am trying to decide just how badly I need to go, if I can wait till morning, or if I need to hike down to the barn. 

It wasn't easy.  As you may recall (or maybe conveniently forgot which would be my choice), last Thursday we woke in the middle of the night to water gushing out of the shower and covering the bathroom floor.  Friday morning Brett tried to find the septic tank.  We were sure it was full and backing up into the house.  He couldn't find it before leaving to visit his daughter in Colorado for three days.

I spent the weekend in the barn.

Monday he resumed digging around, trying to find the tank.  No luck.  I had carpet cleaners come in the afternoon.  Our bedroom carpet was shampooed and deodorized.   Fortunately, we had been able to stop the flow of water with the bathroom area rug so we didn't have to replace the bedroom carpet.  Cleaning did the trick.  The bathroom area rug went into the dumpster -- all 6x9 soggy feet of it.

Tuesday, the septic company didn't show.  Brett called and they said they had been tied up on another job and would be up by noon on Wednesday.

Wednesday noon: no septic truck.  1pm, 2pm, --nothing.  Brett called and the company informed him that they had decided they didn't want to drive up the mountain.  Thanks for telling us.  Brett called another company.  They arrived a few hours later.

It took them awhile to find the tank, but they finally did.

Part of it was under the gravel.  Part of it was under the walkway.  Brett broke out that part of the orchard walkway.  He got his exercise swinging a sledge hammer.

 

And, voila!  There was the tank.  They took off the lid (smelled wonderful as you can imagine) and pumped it out.

But, it didn't fix the problem.  Oh, great.  The septic pumping guys had a snake so they tried to find the clog.  Their snake went in about 15 feet and wouldn't go any further.  They said it felt like the pipe turned 90 degrees and the snake couldn't make the bend.  They said they would come up this morning and try jetting it out. 

They came up.  Jetting didn't work.  They suggested we call a plumber.

We didn't want to call the plumber that put the pipes in when the house was built because we have had constant issues with his work.  Every time we have something fixed, we get comments about the shoddy way the plumbing was done initially.  I got a referral to someone from a neighbor and he came up this afternoon. 

After two hours, he fixed it.  Broke the clog loose.  I could hear the water rushing into the septic tank (which is thankfully closed again).  I could have hugged him.  Instead I took him to the barn and got him a soda of his choice (Cactus Cooler).  Heck, he could have taken a case! 

I am giddy with happiness.  And, seriously, we might have champagne tonight.