Dec 31 -- the most memorable new year

First of all - Happy New Year to all. Let me tell you about our New Year's eve, and it seems to still be continuing ...

First off, the day started badly. Stef wasn't feeling well so they decided that they were going to leave after Aaron ran his errand in Sudbury. Everyone had traveled so far but we were only going to be together 24 hours. Oh well, that's the way that it goes. Everyone was bummed out.

Aaron set off for his trip to Sudbury ... no wait ... he's stuck in the driveway. There was a quick fix for that with Aaron, David, Jeffrey and I pushing; Sandy driving -- up the driveway it goes.

Art Ysseldyk came over and I signed the paper certifying that I am 18 years old, that I am a Canadian citizen, that I will faithfully and impartially perform my duties as Trustee of the Local Roads Board, that I have not and will not accept any payment for these services (too bad), that I owe no arrears in taxes ... you get the idea. We talked in general terms about the duties of the Trustees.

I walked across the lake, drilling holes in the ice to check the depth. I buried my 8 inch bit all the way across and only hit water a couple of times at the very tip. Since 4 inches is safe for walking and 7.5 inches is safe for a car, I felt pretty good about the ice ! Wanting to make the most of the time that we had I went and tried to start the 3-wheeler ... no luck. I switched to the 4-wheeler and brought the GT Snowracer and rope down to the lake. Staying out front I gave the girls -- Kylie and Lauren -- a good ride. They were getting cold though so we gave up after a little while.

Aaron got back around 3:30, had lunch, and they left. Since he'd parked by the barn he had no issues this time. The worst spot in the driveway during the winter is the curve at the top of the stairs. Any snowmelt comes across that corner so it's often icy.

I tried the 3-wheeler again; no luck; I changed the spark plug; no luck; David tried his luck; no luck; we gave up. No wait ... neither of us wanted to give up, and I had a brainstorm. Perhaps it's just dampness around the spark plug wire / coil that's causing the problem. We have one of those paint stripper heat guns and I held it in a strategic location blowing warm air while David tried to start -- bingo. It started right up. Wow ... I need to get a new coil or first try spraying that area with ignition silicone sealant.

By this time Jeffrey and Sara were out on the 4-wheeler, pulling each other on the lake. Once they got back David and Jeffrey raced around on the lake, quitting at dusk. They had a great time. At the very end the 3-wheeler quit due to the snow being kicked up into the engine -- dampness again. Jeffrey towed him over to the shore; I got out an extension cord and the heat gun; away it went again after a few seconds of warm dry air.

We were planning on fondue after Emma went to bed, so I watched a little TV in my den while Sara gave Emma a bath. Sandy came into the den saying -- turn that off, we have a plumbing problem. When Sara let out the bath water she was getting gurgling in the kitchen, quite unusual. I postulated that perhaps we had an air blockage in the vent stack due to ice or snow, but went downstairs to check the sewage pump. Oh oh -- water had started to come out of the sump. This was bad news. Why had the alarm not gone off ? There is an alarm that is supposed to go off if the sump gets too full, i.e. the pump is not doing its job. Of course the alarm was a secondary issue. At this point I had a blockage somewhere.

Let me tell you about my sewage system. Since we're on rock, the septic tank is not low enough for gravity flow, nor is the septic bed. I have to pump the stuff out of the basement to the septic tank, heat it along the way during the winter so that it doesn't freeze; and then pump the effluent up the hill to the septic weeping tile bed. With two pumps and a heat line there are at least three things that can go wrong. This is not good news in the winter. If the resident plumber (me) cannot get this fixed we have to close up. We could not stay.

I could feel the pump running -- vibration on the pipe coming out of the sump -- but nothing was happening. Was the pipe frozen between the house and the septic tank ? That's unlikely since it's been running constantly since we got here. Is the pump dead ? Is the line blocked by something other than ice ? Great. I had always wondered what I would do when the inevitable happened and I had to do a sewage repair. It's New Year's Eve -- where do I go for plumbing parts ?

So ... here is the chain of events:

-- bring the air compressor down from the barn to blow air through the line (there's a valve just for that purpose) to clear the line between the pump and the septic tank.

-- turn on the pump ... no luck

-- open the top of the sump (it's screwed on and silicone sealant shut)

-- yucck, of course it's full, and looks like a mini version of the septic tank with lots of chunky stuff floating. ps, the chunky stuff is not what you think, it's black/white decomposed ... I had not really thought about some of the decomposition taking place in the sump itself, but of course that makes sense.

-- empty the sump, which is really mostly bath water, ... David took out a couple of five gallon pails before I put a utility pump in and started to drain it into the sump pump which is right beside.

-- toward the end of the utility pump's job, it's water flow was blocked by something -- a small cloth-like object -- bingo -- a baby wipe.

Sara had thought that these baby wipes were bio-degradable but whether they are or not (and we determined later that they are not) the pump cannot handle them.

-- take apart the coupling so that I can check the bottom of the sludge pump -- bingo, a bunch of baby wipes stuck in the impeller.

-- put the whole thing back together again and run the pump -- no luck -- groan

-- take it apart again and put a snake up the line -- nothing -- hmmm

-- take the check valve off and clear it of gunk -- put it all back together again -- bingo.

-- whew.

-- fill the sump a couple of times and drain it to ensure that things are working; clean the floats of gunk so that they work properly, test the alarm

-- put the top on the sump, semi-seal it -- there is still more cleanup and silicone to do there

Ok, this sounds fairly straightforward, but it's a very cramped area and this took three hours. David and Jeffrey assisted with ideas, brute force, you name it. I was covered in yucck from reaching down into the sump, rubbing up against the dirty pipes ... this ranks right up there with getting effluent on me under Jason's cottage when we were building ours ! There is still lots of cleanup to do in the basement and probably outside as well.

Right at the end, at the final close-up and test, the water didn't pump and I realized that I had put the check valve in upside down. That was an easy fix at that point because the fittings had all been loosened and tightened several times.

I got into the shower; my clothes went into the washer; we had dinner. We laughed and chatted, eating our fondue. Steak, chicken, shrimp, salad -- we devoured it all. It was truly a memorable New Year's.

This morning I went to put my clothes into the dryer and found that they were not drying. Ok ... time to take the top off the dryer and reset the temperature sensor ... the dryer had jammed the day before with a baby thing getting caught in the drum and the sensor must have tripped at that point. It did its job; I did mine.

So ... the motto is ... when you are in the middle of nowhere, you have to be the plumber, the electrician, the appliance repair guy, the carpenter, the snow clearing guy, the computer guy, the handy-man ... anything that can go wrong will. Anything that you think cannot go wrong, will. Anything that goes wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time ... Murphy is alive and well !

We didn't catch any fish yesterday. At one point there was something on the line but by the time David broke the ice around the fishing rig it got away. It's -22C out there now; today is probably not a good day to fish either.

Sara knew that she was going to be in the blog. I took a close look at the container of wipes and found that there was a picture of a toilet with an X through it ... ha ... but even that was not easy to find, buried in the fine print. When we look back at this New Years we'll all joke about the sh*tty time that we had.

Perhaps I've found another annual maintenance activity -- open the sump and clean out the chunky stuff -- scrape it off the sides and flush it so that it all goes up to the septic tank. It's been running 2.5 years ... no doubt at some point I'll have to do this again. Should I buy a spare pump to have on hand ? That might not be a bad idea. I see now why my Dad had so many spare parts around all the time -- and they did not even stay here during the winter !

Today ... I'll go to 10:30 Mass in Britt. I'll cleanup downstairs. That will be enough !

Onward ...