May 2018 Island Trip Day Six – Part 2

The entire day went down to the septic tank hunt, and ended in success. This was not my favorite way to spend a beautiful day…

After weed-whacking a wide path directly down the hill from the sewer pipe, I took a slim stainless steel rod and started hunting. My first hope turned out to be hard-pan. The second was the grey water pipe. The third hope was a rock. By now, I was most of two hours in, was tired and sweaty, and decided to take a break and hydrate.

Once inside, I searched for the phone number of the son of the man who built the house, knowing he lived on the Island during the summers. Bobby has always been a character and told me I was rescuing him from changing the spark plug that required him, in his 70’s, to lay across the engine of his truck. I told him my conundrum and he had two vital piece of information, having had a hand in building with his father many decades ago.

•  Start digging where the sewer pipe comes out of the house, rather than looking for wet spots in the field, or tapping around with a rod, and, 
• His father would have placed the septic tank as close to that house as possible. “Why use 100’ of pipe, when 20’ will do?” I found the clean outs 25 feet away from the house! 

One of the cleanouts is broken, and so I was able to peer inside with a flashlight. The tank is full to the top. I’ve left a message with the Island septic folks, and am hoping, no, praying, they can stop by tomorrow to pump the tank, and restore normalcy, whatever that is, to the property. While I have been a camper all my life, at 55, surrounded by the comforts of a home, I prefer the predictability a loo to the great outdoors. 😂😂😂