Jul 1 - Effluent

I thought that I'd check the effluent tank, that the pump was operating ok, and found that the hose was leaking in a couple of places.  Two years ago I had to replace the pump, in the winter, ladder down into the effluent tank, and I set it up so that one of the corrugated sump pump hoses ran from the pump to the outgoing pipe.  That way I could haul the pump up by it's safety rope and do any maintenance without going down into the tank.

Well, the hose was leaking from two spots.  I've got another hose and was going to go ahead and replace it (back down in the tank) but decided that I need a more robust hose but of course it needs to be flexible ... not sure that such a hose exists.

I taped it up to help, and it appears that it has, but then the pump wouldn't prime.  Meanwhile the water level in the tank was growing, now deeper than the pump.  It doesn't like the air space up the hill (final conclusion) and so the water doesn't get pumping. I fussed with it for quite a while, even pulling it out and checking the check valve, in case it was stuck ... nope, nice and clean (well, clean for this purpose !) and also ran the pump in the lake to make sure that it was pumping ... yes.  I eventually was able to lie the pump on its side, using the rope, and then it primed.  Lesson learned.  Will I remember the next time ?

Before that, I used the DR to finish the yard or at least what I could get at.  I now need to use the hand-held weed eater to get at parts of the slope that are impossible to reach with the DR.

... and ... I tried out the new setup with the splitter, making short work of the yellow birch.  I did find lots of carpenter ants, so I sprayed them.  The only problem that I had with the motor is that it would stop every 5 minutes or so.  I'd use they choke and it would start right up.  It's almost like there's a little dirt that's blocking the gas at a jet perhaps and then it stops.  It's something that I can live with, if necessary, but I'll use some carb cleaner or sea foam on it to see if that helps.

... and that's it so far; day isn't done ... whoops ... finished yet.

We had Costco tuna for dinner, quite good.  Not quite the same as fresh yellowfin in Florida, but close.  The day before we had shrimp -- again, good.  They didn't have the fresh-out-of-the-ocean taste that we get in Florida, but pretty good for shrimp up here.  Those came from Tarini's.  Tonight, apparently, we're having Tarini's pickerel.  I'd be out there fishing for bass this morning but I'm heading to Sudbury too early.  Perhaps this evening I'll get out for crappie.  It's about time.

The Plex setup is working well.  The Roku is a much friendlier way of seeing what's on tap but the Sony dvd players can also access, so that means that movies setup on the Plex server are accessible on all three TV's.  Knock on wood, but the TV up in the loft is still going strong; one of these days I'll need an HDMI connection up there ... maybe ... and that will be the end of it.  Sandy also put the Plex app on her iPad, so she can watch movies there.

I brought up all of Jeffrey's "Adult Movies" with me this time and they're on Plex.  Adult, in this context, is not what you think -- it's non-kids.  No blue movies please !  When he comes up later this month he will bring some kids movies to add to the local library.  I expect that there's also a way to record movies from TV with the Panasonic DVD recorder that I have here and add them to the library, but I might have to write DVD's first and then rip them to MP4 ... I have stacks of DVD's that were already created that way, some of which should be setup for access.   That would be a project !

Not today.  Today I'm going to Sudbury.  Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll get out on the bike.

Onward.