After a busy weekend of guests I got rooms cleaned and turned over. Wednesday afternoon I headed down to the basement to tackle the mountains of laundry. There was brown water standing in one of my washing machines. Hmm. So, I started a cleaning cycle on that machine and used the other to take the peak off the mountain of laundry. I was folding load 4 when I realized water was running all over the floor. The drain pipe to the sewer was spewing soapy rinse water. Hmm....don't think any more laundry is getting done tonight. I got hold of our plumber early the next morning and he bumped other appointments to get out to the lodge. In the mean time I was trying to find a property map to locate the septic tank. I came up with two maps that placed it in different locations...hmm.
The plumber and his helper started digging. They tried different spots all day within a reasonable distance of where the maps indicated...no septic tank. They did find the major pipe that connected two drains and it had an outlet valve that could be snaked. The pipe was compacted with all the things people are not supposed to put down a toilet on a septic system. They were able to clear the line, but the septic tank was going to have to be found and pumped out.
Jim's welcome home was to get to work digging. After he was able to contact the previous owner and verify that both our maps were wrong, he started digging in the right area. Once he hit it, we had a wonderful friend with a backhoe come dig 4 feet down and expose the whole tank. The "honey dipper" came the next day and vacuumed out our tank. Next we will have cement towers built up and a cover that can be driven over so we don't have to go digging again.
I ordered signs and installed them above every toilet that has a list of just about everything people do but should never flush down a toilet, especially if you have a septic tank. You just keep learning new things all the time, but I'm ready for this summer session to be over!
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