In the past two days we’ve gone from getting a new water filtration system put in to sadly discovering our septic system in on the fritz. Have to say I felt pretty bad for the water filter guy. He spent a lot of time getting the thing set up and ready to run. Told me he was done and I could use the water again – I did. Then I was running out the door to make sure he hadn’t left yet because there was water flooding my basement! YIKES!
OK so it wasn’t a big major flood but it was enough to get my hiney in gear and start hauling the still unpacked cardboard boxes out from under the new waterfall we apparently acquired in a small corner if the basement. It was just enough to cover the top of my barefoot feet but not enough to completely soak through the cardboard of any of the boxes except one. Truth be told, I think it only managed to soak through that one because I totally forgot that box had gotten wet and rediscovered it sitting on it’s wet side over an hour later – DRATS! I did manage to set all the other ones upside down and rip them open immediately so I saved all the childrens books in the other really wet box – notta one book got wet! THANK YOU GOD! The other boxes that had gotten wet happened to have plastic binders or a small plastic storage bin in the bottom of them. Again! YAY! Oh, one did hold the kids computer tower but again, it was totally untouched inside the box by water!
Now the one box that I forgot about did have all of my 10year olds medical records from when he was a newborn and even some of mine. It also held a special 4th of July card from my 3yr old’s first 4th of July how those two things managed to be in the same box is beyond me!. But while that card got wet – it still played it’s music when you opened it. And the medical records – well, thanks to my mom’s suggestion I used up an entire roll of wax paper to separate each and every sheet before they could dry and stick together. I will say I am a bit unnerved by the fact that there is now quite a lot of “yellow” around the edges of these white papers… I’m hoping that is just from the fact they were in a manila folder and it bled onto the papers and not from um…well, our newly discovered issue.
SOoo, now that all the “hidden” boxes are now out in the entertainment room and my daughter is completely blocked from safely entering her bedroom, my house could once again be considered a disaster zone and I feel like I’ve got to start ALL OVER. *sigh* I am however more inspired to get rid of even more stuff now. How I wish I had access to a huge warehouse for a month. Just one month. I’d unload all our my possessions and then slowly move back in what we actually NEED and sell the rest – gosh, I could probably buy a car, with cash, if I did that!
Notice I didn’t say what sort of car – I might have a lot of stuff but truly it’s not worth to anyone else what it once was to me.
A sewer guy came today and did drain all the crap and nastiness (pun intended) out of the septic tank but he also had me come out so he could explain what was going on. Let me tell you – standing next to an open Sewer tank is not exactly the most pleasant way to spend even 30 seconds and I was out there for 15min at least! Oh it was AWFUL! I was very thankful I had worn a thick sweatshirt type thing so I could nearly suffocate myself with the cuff on the arm… Oh but back to the subject at hand…
The sewer guy (after laughing at me for covering my face and gagging) asked me if I heard all the running water. Why yes, yes I did. Of course I just assumed it was water running from the house pipes into the tank now that it was “empty” from his draining it out. “No”, He says, “No, that is water running BACK into the tank from the drainage field because the drainage field isn’t working right and…” Um yea, apparently it’s not supposed to do that and that is a HUGE sign of a major problem!
He gave me about 2 weeks before he’d have to come back out and re-drain it again. Well, either that or they dig up the entire backyard and put new drain tiles in and all that good, lovely, and fun stuff. So much for having a fenced in backyard again for the kids to play in all summer long. But hey – they will have a huge mud pit to play in and what kid doesn’t love MUD! Wait… that mud will be in part due to sewer drainage issues… Scratch that – we’ll stick to the pool and friends houses! No mud – not at this house – not this year! YUCK!
Long story short here… I am so glad we are not the actual homeowner right now. For once I feel that renting is a bit of a God send because there is just no way we could afford a $5,000 to $15,000+ sewer job right now and this my friends, is a MUST FIX situation. I am also very grateful for a landlord who is so nice and understanding and willing to not leave us in the lurch and in fact can joke with us about the whole situation. It might not be our ideal situation but it is our current situation and quite honestly, we are very fortunate.
That said, I now have an adorable little 3yr old who has been put to bed for the night and is not exhibiting very adorable behavior so I must run and deal with that. But you my friends might want to thank my 3yr old for acting up and consider my exit a blessing because I do have a lovely picture I could share with you, of a small hole in my yard, that is filled with nasty, black, gooey liquid that smells as awful as one can possibly image…However, I shall have to pass on posting it so I may deal my sleep resistant child.
G’night all!
A Moment in the SONshine 
Always love reading your blog. You write so descriptively that I feel as if I am right in the situation!