Sigh

Warning! Picture heavy post.

I guess the pictures mostly speak for themselves. I think I've mentioned it on the blog before, not sure, but I've had trouble with our sewer in the past. We have a really strange hookup for being located right in town. (Our house and the one next door were never hooked up to town sewer way back when. All the other houses around them were, so about 5-6 years ago the Region hooked us both up with holding tanks that pump the sewage up to the main line when the level gets deep enough to make the pump kick in. Before that our sewers drained into the brook out back and out into the river that flows into the harbour. Nice, eh? We had no knowledge of this when we bought the house, found out a couple of years later.) I know the Knit Nite girls have heard about my problems. Well, all was well this morning til I opened the basement door after the kids went to school to wash and block a couple of finished Irish Hiking scarves, and the stench hit me in the face.

This is the back room where normally it's the only place the septic backs up -- the round, dark spot on the left is the drain. It has only back up close to this much once before. This was the worst time ever.

It has never come out under the wall around my furnace and hot water tank before.

The rec room. The old carpet has got to go.

The only thing that survived in my garden are some lilies in the corner closest to my steps.

This was NOT the pipe Dad was looking for. This is some kinda drainage pipe that goes around the house (I am not a construction person, so it's beyond me.) It was totally full of sewer water (you shoulda seen the junk that came out of that). The sewer pipe coming from the house wasn't in the logical place that it should have been. More stuff got dug up than what had to.

This is my queer little holding tank. The bottom green pipe is the line from the house, the top green pipe is the overflow, and the pump is attached to the white and black pipe. At some point the sewer line got broken by the backhoe, but it was just as well cuz it helped drain the muddy water into the holding tank where the pump kicked in and pumped it up to the main line. There was too much water where they were digging, they couldn't see.

This is where it stands now. That white line going from the house to the hedge is the power line they ran from my panel to the pump. Why they ever put it over top of the sewer line is beyond me. Obviously it would be in the way someday if the line had to be dug up. Duh. See that small kink in it? The bucket got caught on it and bent it, but luckily it didn't seem to do any damage. Dad yelled as soon as he saw it hook, so the guy in the backhoe stopped. The pipe by Dad's feet is one of the pipes, there is another beside it. One is the sewer line, one has something to do with the overflow.

So basically now I have no facilities. The kids and I are bunking at Ma and Pa's for the night. He's coming to finish the job tomorrow. The Region people came today, and they were like, "Oh, we put this system in when D owned the house." I was like, "No, you didn't. I've been here for 8.5 years, you did this 5-6 years ago." Two or three of the fellas that worked on it also said that the new pipe was only about 1-1.5' from the holding tank, and they attached it to an old tar paper pipe. Well, no, they didn't. That's all new pipe they laid from the house out to the holding tank. What the problems seems to be is that they put a 90 degree angle join on the pipes, which according to Dad, is way too sharp. It should have been no more than 45 degrees. So that's where everything keeps clogging up on me, thus causing the stinking, filthy, disgusting mess in my basement.

So now my garden and lawn is a shambles. My peonies that took five years to bloom are gone. I'll have replanting and grass seed sowing to do in the spring. Sigh. Dad is good friends with the backhoe owner, so I won't get a bill til after New Years, and I hope he gives a cut on it. I think the way Dad talked he will pay it, then I'll pay him back. Add it to the tab I already owe him.

Oh, yeah -- my roof had leaked in the kitchen down through one of my light fixtures when it rained really hard. Dad went up to see if he could find the leak but couldn't, so he just put some tar in the general area. That was fine for a couple of months, til the other day when we had heavy rains, then it leaked again. So the roof needs to be done, too, very soon. (The shingles are probably 20 years old or so.) The garage also has to be done, that leaks like a seive. And the big truck needs steer tires, and the clutch brake isn't working right, and it needs windshields, and a whole bunch of other things...

OKAY -- I'll stop bitching.

One good thing that happened today was I got two of my Chrisco (the Littlest One calls the Disco) hampers today. There are four altogether that weren't supposed to arrive til tomorrow. But the two dry hampers came today, the frozen stuff comes tomorrow. Jewel had to check it out.

You can see Maggie's nose snooping here, too.

I hid this for now. This kids will like it -- they always throw a couple of surprises in the box. Last year there was a knife set and a nice cake plate and server. I think the only thing in these two boxes, though, was this cookie decorating set.

Nala had to check out what was in the box.

And so did Pumba.

I started this post earlier today, so I gotta go cuz it's really like something to eleven now, and I have to go back up to Ma's. Popped home to let the dogs out. Poor Maggie will have to be kenneled for the night. I'll run home first thing in the morning to let them out again. Hubs will be home tomorrow, and we've got some big time cleaning to do in the basement. All this aggravation is cutting into my knitting time as well. Not good since I am running out of time and still have too much to make! I owe Dad a ton of wool socks and probably a sweater after having to deal with all that crap - literally - today!

Happy knitting!