We are living in Florida at the moment and the weather is very tropical.
That means there are lush plants and trees everywhere we look and I could fill this blog with pictures of nature.
And I will,
only not that kind of nature.
We live upstairs in this house-on-stilts.
Downstairs there is a shop
In the shop is a shower, sink, toilet combo, also known as a bathroom, well in this case, a shower-room.
The toilet backed up one morning, no-one was using it, it just decided on its own accord to fill up with…
…whatever it was had been flushed away-supposedly- several uses ago.
I watched as the level kept rising.
It kept on going and going…
No where near as cute as the Energizer Bunny but every bit as alarming!
So Hubs did what all good hubs are supposed to do.
He located the plunger and plunged.
Oh boy!
When the water subsided, taking with it the waste that happens when nature calls, he summoned the plumber and his mate.
Before that good duo arrived, with their snakes and wrenches and roto-rooters, I did what all good wives are supposed to do.
I cleaned the commode (and surrounding floor, just in case).
Oh. Yes. I. did!
In the meantime the heavens opened again and the land around us grew sopping wet and I hoped the downstairs loo (because I’m English) would stay below the lip of the bowl, at least until the professionals arrived.
It did.
Plumb 1 and Plumb 2 arrived and dug up some of the front garden just behind the lavatory pipes to rule out roots.
They pointed their muddy (I think) fingers at a patch of turf that hid the septic tank,
“There’s your problem,” they said together.
And unearthed it for proof.
“It’s full and backing up.”
Then they turned their minds to finer things and talked of alligator hunts and freezers full of fair game distracting Hubs from the sight of something bubbling up from the slab atop the tank.
He and The Men puffed up their chests and wandered down to the canal to survey the river and perhaps catch sight of a mean reptile.
When they left Hubs called the septic folk in La Belle and out came the glorious and politically correct, green Meat Wagon.
(a graphic name for the trucks that emptied septics on the island of Guernsey where I used to live)
R. Crews Family Septic, Inc. has quite an impressive rig for sewage cartage.
The wagon was soon hard at it and let’s not dwell on the sucking hard work that was done except to say,
it was not a pretty sight!
The Verdict?
The Leaching Field is full…or so we’re are told.
The bacterially treated excrement has nowhere to drain anymore so it back-washes in the commode and all over the shop floor and outside it bubbles beneath the concrete slab.
If we re-cover the tank with the turf the shower will start to ooze.
Luckily none of this will happen in the environs of upstairs. Effluvium doesn’t travel uphill it prefers to obey the law of gravity, another feature of nature.
I now have a whole new respect for what happens when nature calls.
Had you ever heard of a Leaching Field before?
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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