July 17, 2009

9:59 a.m.

The Hose Test

Marc seemed to have come down with a fever yesterday, and by evening felt pretty crappy. (In LOLcat speak: "Oh NOOOOOOOES!") In spite of that we went over to House after work to perform The Hose Test on the septic tank. We ran water from the garden hose into the tank for half an hour to see if the level would rise. It didn't! That means the water is going out into the leach field as it should, and we don't have to dig up the yard or dig a trench all the way down to the street to connect to city water. Marc figures I have five to seven years still with the system as it is. It's pretty mineral-crusted but seems very solid. Also we did the Stick Test -- poke a long stick down into the tank to see how deep the water is, before encountering "other matter." It pretty much went to the bottom of the tank. So I don't even have to have it CLEANED!!

This is exceptionally good news. Marc was particularly gratified, and it's possible that contributed to the departure of his fever by this morning.

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I am feeling time slipping by faster now. The time we can spend doing these projects ourselves is so limited, with everybody working most of the time, and M&R still clearing out stuff from their shop in the old house before they sell it next month. The evenings and weekends are chock full. If there was more money I could hire out some of these tasks, but there is only so much, and we are capable of a lot, so why not do what we can? I went from a winter of just about no work, and sitting around puttering on Facebook and worrying about what I would do with myself, to wondering how I would time-manage to get it all done. These are better challenges than having too much time on my hands and not enough work!

Tomorrow is Pipe Day; we'll get a replacement pipe and intend to install it from tank to house. Getting the ends of the old pipe out of the tank and out of the cement foundation will be really hard, it seems like. Sledgehammer, chisel. I'll be there doing what I can and taking instruction but the might really belongs to Marc. I wish I could come up with another guy to help out.

But speaking of helping out, Chris and Carol are meeting us at M&R's old house Sunday to remove machinery, wood, and et cetera from the shop. Marc will borrow the box truck and we hope to get everything else out and have done with it. The band will also be able to talk about England and touring and our future. That will be one big job overwith, and a great relief to Marc. And, of course, then we can focus fully on ME and MY HOUSE, since we occupy the center of the universe.

Must run errands. I love having Fridays off. It makes a huge difference in my peace of mind.