Good morning! Are you up yet? What's your plans for today?

[Tater]

Thanks Ernie.

[maraudinglizard]

My septic tank is 27 years old and never had a problem with it. If you keep them maintained and keep unnecessary stuff out of it, there won't be a major repair down the road. No food disposal period, wipe excess food and grease off before washing dishes. Add a digester along with a root kill once a month and you will not have any problems for years to come. Like Peter said, have the tank properly inspected and go ahead to have it cleaned out as well. Basically start new with it. If it has a septic pump on it, that will be your biggest problem with the system. Ants and other things get fried in the pressure switch, lightning will nail them, and the worst part is something jamming up the pump, no explanation of contents needed. Other than that, they are a blessing without having to be ripped off by a municipality with their ridiculous bills and service. Good Luck, Jerry.

[Tater]

My septic tank is 27 years old and never had a problem with it. If you keep them maintained and keep unnecessary stuff out of it, there won't be a major repair down the road. No food disposal period, wipe excess food and grease off before washing dishes. Add a digester along with a root kill once a month and you will not have any problems for years to come. Like Peter said, have the tank properly inspected and go ahead to have it cleaned out as well. Basically start new with it. If it has a septic pump on it, that will be your biggest problem with the system. Ants and other things get fried in the pressure switch, lightning will nail them, and the worst part is something jamming up the pump, no explanation of contents needed. Other than that, they are a blessing without having to be ripped off by a municipality with their ridiculous bills and service. Good Luck, Jerry.

Thanks Kris! I appreciate it. If we go ahead and get the house, I'll take everyone's advice and start a thread if there's any issues.

[Insanity]

Up and about dropped the big monster off at school now taking the lill monster to urgent care.

[maraudinglizard]

Good luck with lil' monster Matt, hope nothing is serious.

Good morning, little cooler and with soggy air, humidity is 90% right now. Work around the wet ground in the yard. Fix some chicken feeders and reload them. Just taking it slow today for a change.

[Blowpipe Sam]

My septic tank is 27 years old and never had a problem with it. If you keep them maintained and keep unnecessary stuff out of it, there won't be a major repair down the road. No food disposal period, wipe excess food and grease off before washing dishes. Add a digester along with a root kill once a month and you will not have any problems for years to come. Like Peter said, have the tank properly inspected and go ahead to have it cleaned out as well. Basically start new with it. If it has a septic pump on it, that will be your biggest problem with the system. Ants and other things get fried in the pressure switch, lightning will nail them, and the worst part is something jamming up the pump, no explanation of contents needed. Other than that, they are a blessing without having to be ripped off by a municipality with their ridiculous bills and service. Good Luck, Jerry.

Assuming you have good percolation and your system was properly installed!  I woke up this morning to a stopped toilet and an overflowing cess pit.  Bless his heart the late Jr. Sanders designed and installed our complicated system of two cess pits, a lift station and a drain field.  Jr. was the salt of the earth but a freakin awful septic engineer.  Now I have to wait for the septic water to percolate down, open the concrete slab to access the filter, and pull and clean the filter.  Has to be done every two or three months if my invalid brother (who lives with us) doesn't choke the system with too much paper (like it's pretty obvious he has done again).   If we service it regularly the system doesn't overflow.  If it were properly designed we wouldn't have to.

Busy today.  Whatever car the memsahib is driving to Texas needs a service.  I wish she would make up her mind.  Gotta pick up more fencing today to make the yard more puppy proof.  Gotta swing by work and get some codes off my computer there.  Renew the tregistration on the truck.  Call in a prescription and entertain this pack of dogs!.

[anti-squirrel]

Sonja "forgot" to wake me up when she headed off to work.  She texted me later and said I definitely needed the sleep and to enjoy a day off.  Between my parents' health (mother fighting respiratory issue and she has severe COPD), my father falling multiple times (admitted to hospital Friday afternoon... he might be coming home today), our dog Ruger (he's 16 and in rapid decline, as in The Final vet appt on Friday), dealing with some leftover issues from Sonja's ex, and a bunch of well-meaning but poorly thought-out re-organization at work, we've had a lot going on.  At least our contractor for the Quonset Hut has very reasonable and understanding.

Anyway, I guess I needed the sleep since I didn't wake 5 minutes before the alarm at 4:20 this morning.  I had no real plans, but things are coalescing.  I'm dropping off a Lost Cause cultivator with a buddy.  He asked me to take a look at it and get it running if it didn't need much.  I've never experienced such a crazy finicky 2-stroke engine in my life.  It may run good one day, the next, it Will Not Start.  Cleaned and eventually rebuilt the carb, new fuel line, coil, priming bulb, you name it.  No difference in behavior.  It's a horrible design to begin with, but he got it for free and I've spent nothing but time on it.  He has an eBay storefront and does a lot of buying/selling, so I'm gonna see if he wants to sell an 1890s clockwork toy peacock I inherited.  Said peacock sits in an enclosed curio cabinet doing nothing, and my folks gave it to me to sell/keep/throw away.  Apparently they are worth some coin, so I'd rather it go to somebody who wants it for their collection.

I hate the prospect of losing yet another dog, but Ruger's is not doing well and it's obvious he's in a lot of pain.  I'm not sure Butters (our Pug/Boston mix) is too far behind- we've lost so many pets in the last couple years- but hopefully we have a few more years before we bury another cat or dog.  Our back and side yards contain a lot of four-legged friends so Ruger will be in good company.

Anyway, I'm rambling.

Ernie and Kris are on point with the septic stuff.  My in-law's have used a pumping system in their septic for as long as they've owned their house (30+ years and zero problems).  As Ernie and Kris state, keep the oils/greases out.  Don't let people park equipment on the leech field.  Get it pumped periodically.  Don't flush solids except what comes out of your body.  And don't plant trees near the d-box, pump (if it has one), the tank, or the leech field.  Chances are it's a poly or fiberglass tank, so you have less potential for cracks in that regard so less likelihood for root ingress anyway.  Sam brought another thing up: don't use indestructible TP.  The stuff that disintegrates quick is way better, especially if combined with a bidet system (really cuts down on wiping).  Design and care are paramount, but that is why I advise hiring a specialist to inspect the septic system.

Personally, I'll never own another home on city sewer.

[maraudinglizard]

Assuming you have good percolation and your system was properly installed!  I woke up this morning to a stopped toilet and an overflowing cess pit.

My septic system was installed above ground when I bought the property. With the wet ground here there is no way you can have a in ground system. Basically I have a "dead elephant" buried in my yard and the house was built above it so no septic pump to deal with. Having dealt with old state facility septic systems this was my solution in preventing headaches down the road. It can flood all it wants to but it won't flood the bathroom floor.

[Madd Hatter]

We have a real problem with percolation here in N AZ. The ground is clay and just doesn't let the liquid soak in very fast. My septic tank is around 300' down hill from the house and a leach field that takes it almost to the edge of the 40 acres which I estimate is around 500 yards total. Yeah, septic systems are very very expensive around here.

[Blowpipe Sam]

Truck serviced and registered!  I got the codes off my computer.  No fencing yet but I have to go back to town to pick up a prescription.  I plan to hit TS when I do.  I did grab four fence posts.  The water has receded above the septic tank so the next thing is pop that and clean the filter.  After twenty years of troubleshooting institutional septic systems this is a breeze. Then a half an hour to forty five minutes of throwing the tennis ball for Belle followed by a walk around the permission.

[Sqrl Klr]

Sam the same happened to me just the other night at freakin midnight when I was shocked to discover the kitchen bathroom flooded with over 1" of water leaking into the hallway carpet and through the walls into the other rooms! Took every towel in the house I had to mop it up then I ran the fans for 2 days drying up the carpet and walls. I can't imagine the cost of repairs if I'd not found that till the next morning.

Neighbor had it worse and had to throw out all his heavy wet carpet. I think in our case it was from the freeze but for me all is flushing well now. He had to get a plumber.

[A.K.A. Tommy Boy]

Good morning all.
The dog, cat and I are up for the day.
I took the dog out and the cat came with us.
The cat stayed outside, catting around in the woods.
It is +21 F outside with a little snow on the ground.
I expect he will want to come back in after a couple of hours.
I have a 9 am chiropractor appointment today.
After that I'll be working on a few outside projects today


Best Wishes - Tom

[maraudinglizard]

Good morning, a balmy 49* here with a little fog. Road trip to deal with the last of the retirement paper work, pick up zoo and people food, tool and drool at lowes and china freight, pick up the mail, and  just enjoy the day being out of the house for a minute.

[Jshooter71]

Good morning GTA! Happy Wednesday! After 2 days working out of town, I slept good in my own bed last night. I went to bed about 2000 hrs and got up just after 0430. I have my Wednesday morning meeting at 0600 and then a walk-in freezer that needs fixed. The unit is only about 2 months old, but both condenser fans quit. We didn’t install it, but I get to fix it, and the motors were special order under warranty.

[avator]

Mornin'
It's a cool 41 out right now and supposed to get up close to 60. Sun and no rain is expected.
As I posted in another thread, I think I'm going to go in the wooed area of the property and put together a natural blind to overlook the swamp pond and also have sight to the trees.

[A.K.A. Tommy Boy]

Mornin'
It's a cool 41 out right now and supposed to get up close to 60. Sun and no rain is expected.
As I posted in another thread, I think I'm going to go in the wooed area of the property and put together a natural blind to overlook the swamp pond and also have sight to the trees.

Hi Bill.

I read your other post too.
That sounds like a good plan.
If you take any pictures, it will be interesting to see them.


Best Wishes - Tom

[avator]

Sure thing Tom... it won't be nothing fancy. I know when Shadow was still posting his hunts he would use alot of hides like this. I took a walk in the woods and sat on a log the other day and it was so quiet and peaceful. So even if I don't get to shoot anything I will enjoy just hanging out.

[Frank in Fairfield]

Routine service for the Civic..

[Blowpipe Sam]

Mornin y’all.  Today is the penultimate day of my latest vacation.  Tomorrow the memsahib leaves for Texas and Friday I go back to work.  So today will be spent with La Esposa getting her ready to go and Belle proofing the back yard so I can leave the puppy out of doors during the day.

[Rabbit\Squirrel Killer]

Up at 5:00 AM I was up at 12:20 AM to let the dogs out, and then in and out of sleep until I gave up at 5:00 AM.


I have a slight sinus headache still but the pressure is waning and becoming more localized to one small area. My abs are very sore along with my solar plexus especially the upper right quadrant the worst being along the ribs.


 Overall I feel pretty well save the above lingering effects and feel confident that I will be completely back to normal soon.


 I just realized it is trash day, so I need to get it out to the road now before I miss the truck.