Bike made it home yesterday

[f6john]

As I mentioned in another thread, on my return trip from Inzane, I stopped off at my mother's house to check on her after a 345 mile morning jaunt from Rams house. It was a timely visit as my wife and I missed our regular weekly trip while I was in Eureka Springs. Turns out she was out of some of her favorite grocery items so I took her car to Kroger to pick up a few things. Her car reminded me that she needed an oil change (the car, not mother) so I check the oil life monitor and it indicated that 0 miles were left and I didn't really know how longe it had been that way.


So, after getting back with the groceries and completing my visit I suggested that I driver her car to my house to do an oil change and check it over. It was getting late and the idea of traveling the last 83 miles home on deer infested country roads made the choice to take her car very appealing.


Fast forward a week to yesterday and her car has been freshened up so I drove her car back home with my wife following in her car as no way would she ride the bike back with me, and as it seems to still be in a monsoon season at any given moment in Kentucky, I might be coming back with her!

We arrive and I'm about to settle down on the couch and read the latest happenings in the local paper, my wife calls out, you better get down here! She was in the basement and was planning to wash some sheets off my mother's bed but that was not going to happen. The washing machine was full of brown murky water. The machine has a setting of drain and spin so we tried that setting and the machine started pumping the water out. Then it happened! Water started leaking out around the screw in clean out cap of the sewer line!!!

It's 11:00 AM on a Friday and I immediately call a septic pumping service. I didn't get a no, but I also didn't get a yes. But still I was hopeful. I knew what my next move had to be. Go to the garage and start looking for digging tools. All I came up with was a rusty round point shovel and a post hole digger in equally sad shape. This was going to be a battle between me and some pretty hard red clay dirt and the uncertainty of where exactly to start digging.

The Good Lord had mercy on me, it was cloudy and there was breeze, so even though I was sweating like a plow mule, I didn't overheat, like I did in the Arkansas sun a little over a week before. It was a 3 hour ordeal of digging and even though the tank wasn't too deep, I had to find the tank cover. I first found a seam in the tank which I knew had to be the cover for the tank opening, then I had to just keep digging to find all four sides. I tell you that was the biggest tank cover I have ever encountered. But in the end my first shovel of dirt was only off to the side of one corner of the cover by about six inches! Eventually the pump truck shows up and pumps out the tank and they have to clean out about 6-8 feet of the line leading into the tank, which was the reason the water was backing up inside the house when we tried to drain the washing machine.

By 4:00 PM I was shoveling dirt back into the hole, ecstatic that the ordeal was about over and that we had showed up when we did as my mother would not have been able to handle the situation and my brother in law is even older than me.

Now back to the motorcycle part, I departed around 5:30 with the wife following me in her car. I was in my jeans and t-shirt and it there is a perfect set of climactic conditions for riding a motorcycle, I had hit on it. Mostly great roads between Campbellsville and Richmond and all two lanes with a few sections with 3 lanes for passing truck and farm traffic. The traffic was medium but moved along quite briskly. Now to say I was tired would be an understatement, and I was happy when I pulled into the garage at home, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience to be in the wind and clear the mind. Only one task left for the day, call my Mother and let her know we were home safe and sound, and wish her a good nights rest.

Amen for another day in America.

[Jersey mike]

It seems a son's work is never done, you did good  .

My father in law was not one for vehicle maintenance and in his later years of driving I'm not even sure he was the one checking his oil (which by the way after we took possession we found out it was probably wasn't changed in about 20,000 or more miles. The filter was clogged as could be. Mechanic had to run 2 cycles Marvel Mystery or Seafoam through to clean it out) when we took possession of the car there were about 10-12 quarts of oil with about 4-5 ounces out in the back of the vehicle. I could just guess he was having the guy at the gas station check his oil and buying another quart each time. In the years we've had the vehicle (Honda Element) it doesn't burn any oil...knock wood... and we go 4-5k between oil changes.

Congratulations on dealing with the septic system, we now have city sewer and only remember back when I was young what is detailed with septic issues. Growing up our neighbors next door had septic issues and it was bad at times. Finally the township made the switch to city water and sewage.

[Hook#3287]

Sound like a unwanted adventure in septic land. Yuck.

Being resourceful is important when off the grid, any grid, but it's what makes country folks resilient.

I'm surprised the stoppage was in the pipe between the house and tank, my understanding is most are after the tank in the pipe leading to the fields, possibly foiling them.

Glad that's not the case, cause that could get pricey for repair.

[Serk]

You seem to have a thing for bookending trips with digging... (I'm sure you were in good practice at it after single handedly digging up Ram's tree stumps with just a tea spoon, as I hear was done.)

Glad you were able to help Mom, and glad you were able to get yourself and your bike home safe!

Was good to see ya' in Eureka Springs...

...ya'll kinda making my rethink my plan to sell the suburban house and build on my rural land though...

[scooperhsd]

Here in KCK - the house was built in 1952, and we have no city sewer where we are - it's strictly septic tank. My FIL had some pretty strict rules (which got passed to my wife) on how to use a septic system - and we have never had to have one pumped out (that includes the NC house that was also on septic - so were going on near 30+ years of never having to have our septic systems pumped out).

[f6john]

Jersey Mike, full disclosure, my Mother hasn't driven her car for over two years. I would sometimes take it on grocery runs just to stir the juices. So the delay in oil change is mostly on me but her 2015 Buick Regal Turbo only has 13,700 miles on it when I returned it to her garage so it's not hurting.


Hook, the reason for the back up is that even though all the drain lines in the house were changed to pvc years ago, about an 8' section from the basement wall to the tank itself was not!   But that will be a job for another day. With mother being 97 it should not be a problem for her again, and No More Toilet Paper in the bowl!!!

Serk, yep, Rams would never have gotten those stumps out without my expertise! Of course the Kubota was instrumental too. Don't give up on your building plans because of septic issues. Better materials and methods are available now compared to 1978 when mothers house was built.

[f6john]

Not very impressive as dig sites go, but no Kubota's involved. It is usually customary for the Septic service to open (dig) out the tank opening and then once pumped move the dirt back in the hole. It was my choice to make the initial dig as to assure the service they wouldn't have to search for the tank opening or do any shovel work.

I was blessed to get them to come for my mother's sake. They came and went in less than an hour with $325.00 in their pocket, and while they did put the cement cover back in place, they left the dirt for me! And here I had been thinking I might need to get a gym membership.

[Hook#3287]

In the 35+ years I've been living at my present dwelling I've had my 1500 gal septic tank pumped 3 times.

It's a maintenance thing, as if solids get into the post tank pipes, D-box or effluent fields, repair gets spendy.

Depends on number of humans occupying the building.

Being mostly a rural/country boy, I prefer having private septic and water systems.  Although the build costs are much more, I'm not getting a quarterly bill from the town and can't be told how much I can use the systems.

F6John, ya did good locating that lid.  Even with past experience AND having triangulated measurements off the house foundation AND having a Volvo mini excavator, I still struggled some, the last pump out this spring.

Good work.

[Farside]

  Job well done. I've never had a septic system in my 40 years of owning 4 homes until my move to S.GA. I don't have a clue on how long we should get out of our system on this newly built home as we didn't get an in-service but I hope it will be several years out or as long as we live here. I wouldn't have know anything about where our septic and drain field was located if I hadn't of rolled up the day it was being installed. I asked for a picture and will save for the next homeowner! 

[f6john]

Job well done. I've never had a septic system in my 40 years of owning 4 homes until my move to S.GA. I don't have a clue on how long we should get out of our system on this newly built home as we didn't get an in-service but I hope it will be several years out or as long as we live here. I wouldn't have know anything about where our septic and drain field was located if I hadn't of rolled up the day it was being installed. I asked for a picture and will save for the next homeowner! 

One thing is for sure, that one pine tree should grow like gangbusters. Most important info that could have been gleaned at the time was some measurements off your house and the sidewalk to the center of the tank clean out lid.

[Jersey mike]

Job well done. I've never had a septic system in my 40 years of owning 4 homes until my move to S.GA. I don't have a clue on how long we should get out of our system on this newly built home as we didn't get an in-service but I hope it will be several years out or as long as we live here. I wouldn't have know anything about where our septic and drain field was located if I hadn't of rolled up the day it was being installed. I asked for a picture and will save for the next homeowner! 

One thing is for sure, that one pine tree should grow like gangbusters. Most important info that could have been gleaned at the time was some measurements off your house and the sidewalk to the center of the tank clean out lid.

That is quite a leeching field.