yes, it is a beautiful day in north west Tasmania, the sun is shining, it’s currently 20C with a UV index of 10.7 (extremely high), the sky is blue, there’s a tiny breeze, the birds are singing, and Mr Tasmania is out on the lawn mowing, adding a little touch of noise pollution – all is right with the world ….
Now.
Another of the delights of rural living is having a septic tank … something which is not thought about at all, most of the time … until it shoves itself into your consciousness in such a way that you cannot avoid it … bugger …
Minor blockage / explosion in one of the pipes this morning (not too bad as these things go, could’ve been ENORMOUSLY worse), plumber on Sunday call out $300, couldn’t do anything as septic tank needed a pumpout – he reckoned that would fix the blockage.
Lots of phone calls and $400 later the man came to do the pumpout … which was great actually, as he showed us how we could’ve fixed the blockage ourselves and saved not only the $300 for the useless (and lazy, as he could’ve done this bit!!!) plumber but also the $180 extra it costs for a weekend pumpout call out. We would still have needed the pumpout but could’ve done it during the week …
ah well, live and learn, we’ll never need a plumber for this sort of issue again … and at least it was a lovely sunny day, imagine trying to sort all that out in the middle of winter in the wind and freezing rain!!!!
Hope the rest of life is going ok and this is just a minor (rather expensive) hick up.
Ah, the joys of septic tanks. At least it is sunny – here in the UK our septic tank are full of rainwater. It has been the wttest year on record – and it is still raining. No high heels here, just wellington boots!
ah yes, good in general at the mo which is very nice – poor Mr Tas is a bit over it, as he had the start of root canal on Friday as well, but all sunny from here on I reckon
I’d forgotten the joys of septic tanks (I remember staying in a youth hostel in the Rocky Mountains which had a weekly pump out, the loo was basically a hole in a bit of wood over the top of the tank. It’s where I learnt very valuable breath-holding skills!).
ours is a little bit more scientifically advanced than that
– the pumpout guy said with the size of it it would probably need a pumpout every 3 – 5 years, which isn’t bad – so we’ll just unscrew the top every 6 months or so and have a look and make a decision from there. It’s a healthy septic tank, which is nice to know 
– I’ve had enough experience with them (having grown up with them as well) that there’s a major difference in types of pong! 
– who knew THAT would be a great life skill to develop eh 