scuba diving and a septic tank

But first, one more picture from the museum demo. This is why we do these things.



Anyway, da boys in the group went scuba-diving after the demo was over. Here they are getting ready....



While they were in the water, da girls wandered around the shoreline, taking in the sights.....



.....collecting seaweed to dye wool with...



And then laughing at Darrell when he flopped up on the shore.



Now, on the other hand, this past week hasn't been quite so fun. A year ago, our septic tank overflowed. We dutifully called in a septic service - it had been raining a lot, and it's an old house. These things happen.

They drained the tank and then two weeks later..... it overflowed again. This can't be good.

So some exploration was done, and the verdict? It's dying. It's old, no longer up to code, and the clay outflow pipes are full of tree roots. Surprise surprise. The yard is full of trees.

The nice septic people bored out some of the pipes, buying us a year or two to decide what to do with it. That's where we pick up the story again... in these past few days, we had the whole system replaced.

That sounds simple, doesn't it?

Holes are dug, and foundations drilled...


This is the crawl space under the addition through which the new septic lines had to be routed. The new hole through the foundation can be seen in the back wall. Our plumber, brave soul that he apparently is, had to get in there to do the job. I don't think I could do it.


While those insignificant tasks were going on, there was this big machine digging out an even bigger hole in the yard...


The bathroom wall (yes, my freshly painted pink walls) had to be cannibalized to fix some pipes that had to brought up to "code" as well.


The tank gets lifted in....quite a feat around trees, sheds, and a Bell telephone wire inconveniently placed.


And connected.... five metres away from the house, as per "code". I'm thinking that this whole "code" thing is a real nuisance. I haven't died for living in a house with an out-of-code septic tank for the past five years. Let's not even get into "permits" and "inspections", shall we?


All the time, that big machine keeps digging out the big hole.....


.....in order that the weeping bed and pipes can be laid down.


This is as far as the refilling process got before the rain stopped them yesterday.


The yard is now a collection of mountains of topsoil waiting to be spread out neatly....whenever the rain stops for a sufficient amount of time.

*sigh*

Karen