Flushed with pride

That was a fine summary of a septic system, Mr. Beagles, and I like the fact that electricity is not required if the elevations are correct.  Modern day waste treatment and water management are nothing short of miraculous, I think.

And then I think of the aqueducts built by the Romans and my mind wobbles.  Those guys were smart, really smart, and I have no idea how they sat down and figured it out.  There must have been a lot of math involved but have you tried doing advanced calculations with Roman Numerals?  Aghh!  Can such feats be accomplished today with the same tools and techniques of past millennia?  Where do you begin (besides having thousands of slaves at your disposal)?

 

Rural Septic Systems

Before I get into the septic system, here is a copy of the last paragraph in Uncle Ken's post of November 19, at least this is the way it displayed on my browser:

 And there were young people like me working in the hospital and they all liked to drink beer and smoke dope and listen to music, so

Funny thing, it came out like this when I copied and pasted it just now:

And there were young people like me working in the hospital and they all liked to drink beer and smoke dope and listen to music, so we carried on the revolution in the trailer I rented.

Another funny thing, Uncle Ken and I agree on Trump, even though we disagree about most other political issues.

Okay, the toilets and all the other used water drains into the septic tank, usually a concrete chamber of about a thousand gallons.  There it naturally ferments causing most of the solids to eventually liquify.  Until they do, the solids form a sludge that floats on top.  There are no chemicals involved, unless you count yeast as a chemical.  There are other products you can buy, but yeast works just as well and costs less.  When the tank gets full, excess water drains to the drain field through a pipe located below the normal sludge line.  The drain field is a network of pipes that disburses the water into the soil.  When the system operates correctly, there is no smell or visible water above the ground.

If you build on a site that has poor drainage, usually due to a high water table or impermeable soil, you are required to install the drain field on top the ground and back fill with sand.  The puts the drain field too high for the water to flow to it by gravity, so it needs to be pumped out of the tank.  For this type of installation, the septic tank has two chambers, one of which collects the water that is periodically pumped to the drain field by a sump pump.  If the sump pump fails and the water in the tank rises above a certain level, a warning light turns on, and you have a day or two to get the problem fixed before your house drains cease to function and your toilet ceases to flush.

This brief summary is all I have time for tonight.  I need my beauty sleep because I might have to plow snow tomorrow.  We've been lucky so far with only a few inches on the ground, but more has been predicted.  

.

Hunter Biden, Hunter Biden, free at last

 Just one more thing as Colombo is inclined to say just as you are about to slam the door and flop into the LaZ Boy with a big Phew!

This is from a letter I wrote lately and I wonder if either of you guys have an opinion on it.

This outrage over his pardon is bullshit.  The idea that Joe should be purer than Caesar's wife while Trump is wallowing in sin and leave his son at the tender mercy of the savages he is appointing is crazy.

Sorry to bother you but I am watching CNN alone with nobody to yell at but my cat who refuses to discuss politics.

septic tanks and drain fields

 I can always tell that Beagles is ok because he likes my paintings on fb, usually on a Sunday, and I assume that he can tell I am okay because I make those posts every Monday.

I can't find the incomplete sentence which he cites, but I am wondering about the last line on his post:  happend totop

My post was going to be about the feeling that my people are in charge sometimes and sometimes it feels like Beagle's people THEY are running things.  I was thinking of how I feel lately like an alien presence has taken charge.  Well Trump yes, and his merry band of savages, but what about the murky folks in the hinterlands that put him there.  Why did they do this, what do they want?  

I started it with my Berkely Barb selling days and was going to trace the events between then and now, but I only got as far as my days in Southern Illinois when it was getting late in the morning for me and I titled it with the 1, and was thinking I would continue it with 2, but I never got any kind of response and it was like when you are talking to somebody else and think that your conversation is sparkling and informative and then you look up and you see that they have left the room.

But wait, septic tanks.  I have been out in the country and seen them and talked to people who use them.  But not in much depth because, you know, icky.  I understand when you flush out in the country it goes down some pipe and then into some tank which is sometimes buried and sometimes standing out there in the open, like Pancho's gun, for all the honest world to see.  There are some chemicals in there that I guess sweeten the liquid, and then what?  I know it goes somewhere, but where?  I guess a pump makes sense, but the idea of a drain plain is intriguing.  How far away is it.  Is it a foul smelly plain where no plant dares to raise its head, or it full of luxuriant, well-fed flora.

Mr Google is pulling on my shoulder whispering of information just a few clicks away, but I would rather hear it from Beagles in his storytelling manner. 

I will respond to Old Dog's comments on misposting that watercolor post soon with a long and meandering and mostly pointless recount of my Artistic Journey.  Stay tuned.

The Joys of Rural Living

Thanksgiving went well, until it didn't.  After the guests had left, we noticed the high-level warning light for our septic tank was on.  That means the pump that pumps the used water out of the tank into the drain field was not working.  If this problem was not addressed in a few days, our toilets and drains would cease to function.  These pumps usually last 20 years or more, but this was the third one to go bad on us this year.  I left a message on the septic guy's machine, and he called me back the first thing next morning.  He came out and fixed it straightaway, but it failed again in less than two days.  When I called the guy, he said that this was not normal pump behavior and that something else must be wrong.  Turned out that the pipe that leads from the pump to the drain field was broken, and the water was going back into the tank faster that the pump could pump it out, which caused the pump to overload and shut down.  The septic guy's assistant assured me that it's fixed now, unless something else is wrong, we'll have to wait and see.  I seem to remember that the city sewers in our old neighborhood in Chicago used to back up and flood people's basements from time to time.  The only difference was that that there was nobody you could call to fix the problem.

The good news is that the big lake effect snow event missed us here in Cheboygan.  We got barely a trace, and most of that has melted.

Uncle Ken's last post was disturbing.  It cut off right in the middle of a sentence, and there has been no "part two" to follow his "part one".  I hope this doesn't mean that something bad has happened to him.  Do you know anything about this, Old Dog?

 happend totop

Chilling out

Finally, some seasonably cold weather much to my liking.  The lower double-digits are fine when you're out and about and moving; quite invigorating, maybe not so good if you're stuck in one place and can't get out of the wind.  Builds character, does it not?

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Thanksgiving has come and gone; I trust my colleagues had some familial gathering.  No turkey on the menu in my neck of the woods; nobody likes it so there was chicken and roast beef instead.  I wouldn't have minded some dark meat with gravy but making gravy is a lost art, it seems.  The stuff in the cans just doesn't work for me but I'm becoming more "old school" as the clock keeps ticking.

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Be careful what you wish for, Uncle Ken.  You might not like the sparks from a few new posts regarding your watercolors.  I've already given you the benefit of my constructive criticism (years ago!) and I'll leave it at that.  You don't need validation from me or anybody else as long as you find value in your efforts, so keep on keeping on.