MondayTuesday

While I love having Monday holidays off from work, I never like the Tuesday back at work.  It usually makes up for the day off, and today was no exception!

Bill's off this week, he's got time to use or lose so he's using it while he can. He might or might not be able to take off when I have my vacation scheduled the first week of July.  Because he works for a school district and is basically the only one who does what he does, there are times when he simply can not get time off.  The summer is usually busy for non-teaching staff anyway, since there's a lot of things that they can't do/fix/replace/etc. when the classrooms are full of students.

Otter starts her summer term next Monday, she'll have classes on Monday and Wednesday but July 4th falls on a Wednesday so she'll probably only have one day of class during my vacation week.  However, we are not planning a trip or anything this year.  We will most likely just hang around the house and probably do a few things that are local.  I'm really looking forward to a stay-at-home-vacation, and we are hoping that Bill will be able to take off at least a day or two that week.  Ideally, he'll be off all that week but we won't know that for a while yet.

Since Bill was home today, he had the septic tank cleaned out.  It's supposed to be done between every 3 to 5 years, depending on size & usage.  It's been just over 4 years so we knew we were close.  The guy came out this morning and he said that we could probably have waited a few more months, but that's not something we wanted to wait on.  A few years ago, the city we live in started installing sewer lines to the outer areas (like where we are) but it was left up to the individual residents to decide about attaching or not.  However, there is a stipulation.  Residents that have septic tanks can have them cleaned out and normal maintenance done, but if the septic tank ever fails then the "grandfather clause" that allows the tanks becomes null & void.  In other words, maintenance is ok but replacement or major repair is not allowed.  At that point, the resident has no choice and has to attach to the sewer line.  At the resident's expense, which can run several thousand dollars.  $250 to get the tank cleaned out vs. $5,000 - $8,000 to have a sewer line put in from the house to the city sewer - not a hard choice!  Also, the existing septic tank would have to either be removed (an addition expense and a big one), filled with sand (cheaper but still not cheap) or crushed in place which would also entail having a considerable amount of dirt brought in to level it up - also not cheap!  And then we would have to pay the additional cost for using the city sewer each month.

Froggy - most of that is for your benefit, since you are about to have a house with a septic tank.  They are not really hard to deal with, you'll have to make sure that trees aren't too close to them because tree roots will go to water.  Septic tanks have extensions that allow water to leach out into the surrounding ground, which tree roots love.  Tree roots can destroy a lot of things, including things like sewer lines (as we found out at our old house).  We use a product called Ridex in the septic tank, it's a powdered substance that is filled with bacteria that help the "contents" of the septic tank to be broken down.  It's available at WalMart and probably most grocery stores, it's under $10.00 per box and it's worth it.  We put it in at the first of the month since that's the easiest way to remember.  There are other brands, but that's just the one we use.  Most toilet paper brands are safe for septic tanks, also.  All pipes that drain from your house will lead to it, disposer, toilets, washer, shower, etc.

I'm not sure what your specific situation will be, at least as far as being able to get work done if needed - check with the city, but more and more cities are getting away from septic tanks and going to sewer lines.  Most septic tanks are underground, but some of them are above ground and look like big metal tanks.  The buried ones can be metal tanks but I think they are most often made from concrete and are probably square.  It's not unusual for the grass directly above the tank to be sparse or even have dead spots, and the area where the leach lines (they have a name but I forget what it is) will often have greener grass over them.  In my yard, we can tell where they are by the greener grass and the fact that it's greener in obvious lines.  Also - you want to avoid building over the tank and that includes not even putting up an above-ground pool over it.

And for the record, septic cleaning is not a job I would want!

OK, today's lesson is concluded.  Froggy - there may be a test later!  :)