Hidden Plumbing Skills

Let me know how you like the new format. I personally preferred the older one but will get used to this. Apparently, the old format wasn’t very friendly for people using tablets or mobiles, something that wasn’t a consideration a few years back. I was also being routinely bugged by WordPress to upgrade to the latest version. In the past I’ve ignored these kind of requests from software companies and paid the price when they discontinued support. That’s a pet peeve of mine – the software folks keep forcing you to move on, often to worse products, or get left holding the bag.

Nancy is doing fine and improves each day. She’s still spending the lion’s share of the day horizontal but is up and about more and more. I’m trying to make sure she doesn’t overdo it so the whole process of healing isn’t interrupted. Her pain has been manageable with Aleve and hasn’t required any heavier meds. She’s eating well. Tonight I have a very special repast planned-pasta with scallops, zucchini, spinach and Rotelle tomatoes. Last week she made something similar using shrimp, spinach, and Rotelle but this is sure to top that. Late breaking update – it was incredible. At the last minute I decided to drop the Rotelle and increase the wine Combined with imported bucatinni pasta, the result was delicious. I did a whole pound of pasta so there’s enough left over for another supper and probably a lunch or two. On the next past, I’ll freshen it up with another batch of spinach.

Got another line item to add to my resume – plumber. A few weeks ago I began noticing that when the bathtub or washing machine drained, you could hear it gurgling and bubbling throughout the plumbing. Then when Nancy was in full prep mode for the surgery, it backed up big time. I put on my to do list to call a plumber. My hesitation was that I wasn’t sure whether it was a pipe clog somewhere or a full septic tank issue. Those are two different professions and I wanted to be sure to call the right one because for sure I’d be charged for the house call even if it was the wrong one. Today we did a load of wash and once again it backed up so I called my neighbor and asked for the name of plumber who had recently done some work at his house. He came over and suggested that I try to clear it myself by opening the cap between the house and the septic and trying to break a clog if there was one. I did and sure enough that line was full and stopped up. What a mess – I’ll leave the details for your imagination. I started working a water hose down the line toward the septic tank and could only get a few feet before hitting a total block. The line is about 15’ long. I just worked it for an hour or two, a couple inches at a time, breaking the clog piecemeal until it finally cleared. I did this on Thursday and two days later, the pipe section between the house and the septic tank is dry as a bone. Total success. Joey came up yesterday and stopped at Lowes to pick up a plumbing snake. We snaked the previously clogged line to make sure it was clean and it was nice and dry. I also put the hose back down with a high pressure nozzle on it to finish the job.

It’s mid March and we had a freeze last night. After a mild winter, spring is turning cold. No citrus next year for our trees but probably no impact in the garden due to the covers I’ve kept on way beyond normal. I’ve got bean and corn seeds in the ground just a few days from germinating and I’m hoping the over topping soil will provide enough insulation to save them.