Septic Shock

Who knew doing laundry could be so dangerous?

I figured something was wrong when I noticed sewage backing out of my shower and tub drains. Ewww! The plunger only made matters worse. The only perceive cause was the washing machine, which had just emptied it's first rinse cycle and was about the start another. Quickly I turned it off. Luckily, very little of the filthy water leaked onto the floor. The rest remained contained in their tubs. Then I called Chris.

My hero arrived home a couple hours later. It was almost 10 at night and he had a 6am call but he proceeded to take a snake (a plumer's auger used to clear drains) and cleared out every drain in the house, including the septic tanks vent, which is on the roof. No luck.

Then he went outside and, with a shovel, began to uncover the lid to the **gulp** septic tank. While it was wasn't as smelly as he expected, it did appear to be full. Oh boy! There will be no showers tonight. Time to crank up the hot tub! Sure we would be soaping up but it was relaxing, none the less.

Chris didn't get to be until 1am.

This morning I looked in the Country Journal (the local free paper) and called one of the septic companies listed -- Acton Sanitation. "When would you be able to come out to empty our tank and how much would it cost?" That would depend on our tank --was it concrete or metal -- because the problem could just be a clog. I told Jim, the man from Acton Sanitation, that I didn't know and he offered to come over to check it out for me. (He was just down the road from our house.)

As promised, he arrived in about 10 minutes. And, after checking into our septic tank (which is metal), he confirmed that it was just a clog. He took a rod from out of his truck, jabbed at the pipe in the tank and VOILA! The tank began to guggle to life. "So does this mean the drains in my house are now working again?" "Yup."

That was it. Go figure.

You know what's even more amazing? Jim didn't charge me a thing. Talk about a super nice guy. I guess I can chalk it up to "country livin'".