We picked our first bell pepper today.

and we already ate it. :-)


And while picking beans, I found this.





Aren't they cute?

Some of the beans (they're Blue Lake Bush beans) had a light purple color on them. Not sure if the camera shows it very well.



And when I went out to get the laundry, I took some pictures of the garden with my phone. Sorry if they won't expand.





That's the garden behind the garage. I showed you the same area earlier. Bush beans (and one bush bean that wants to be a pole bean - that's why the fence post in the front), bell peppers (the shorter ones have recovered from our late frost), tomatoes, cucumbers (where the plastic fence is), more broccoli and brussels sprouts, watermelon, and sunflowers.

There are also 4 new fruit trees out there.

We also have tomatoes in buckets, and a tire tower with potatoes. They look ragged because we just added more compost to them.





Oh. Can't forget the onions. Yes, I know I planted them too close together.



I did forget to take pictures of the grapes, but I'll get them some other time. ;-)

So far the fix to the sewer line seems to be working. And the people farming the field behind us were out with tractors doing their planting, so no problems there, either.

Have a wonderful weekend! ♥

Now we know the rest of the story.

Hubby told me this morning, as we were waking up, that BIL remembered that the... whatever the pipe is called that goes to the leech field -- well, BIL remembered that the pipe from septic number 2 runs out back alongside the out building.
So I said, "Oh. You mean it was put in when your family still owned that property."
Hubby said yes.
So that explains how it could get muddy and get a tractor stuck, I guess.
I told him we'll just have to keep an eye on it then; and if it starts getting muddy when there's been no rain, I suppose that tank will have to be pumped.
We also need to fill in the hole, and then mark it somehow so we remember where it is.

I don't really know how big that property is back there. But the FIL lost it many years ago due to drinking and gambling. That's how 'the farm' came to be the 6 or so acres it is today.

Hope you're all having a good day. I suppose I should go out and weed. Ugh.

See you later!

Fact is stranger than fiction.

Blogger is being a brat and keeps logging me out when I try to post; but yet lets me comment on blogs. >:-/

We went and bought a couple hundred dollars worth of PVC to reroute the bathroom plumbing. After we got home, Hubby decided to check the pipe the way the plumber suggested, and it seems the second septic system works.

So, we put in a patch pipe. A temporary fix until hubby is at 100%. We'll find out tonight if it works or not. And we'll keep the extra pipe just in case.

Anyway, BIL called after hubby emailed him.
Seems he remembers their father and an uncle - a licensed plumber - putting in the second septic tank and leech field.

And he also remembers the second leech field apparently leaked under the access 'road' of the property behind this one. It's a dirt access way that exists by being driven over a lot.

That property used to belong to hubby's family, but that's a story for another time.

Anyway, apparently the farmer's tractor got stuck in the mud created by the leech field. So the story goes.
Now those are big tractors that farm that field, so that kind of surprises me. I don't know what that says about the leech field, because it could not have been put back there, it must have leaked?

So, the BIL said, in a fit of anger, their father dug up the sewer line and broke it, right where the missing pipe is!

Now, as far as I know, that bathroom has always been used.
And FIL passed away in the late 70s or early 80s. My memory fails me yet again, sorry.
But still, that is a LONG time for that bathroom to be...working like that.

It might explain why, though, when we got here, the bathtub in that bathroom was just allowed to empty onto the ground under the house.

Ugh.

Ah well. Moving on. Hopefully it will work well enough for the reunion next month.

Take care! ♥

So it was only $75....

Thanks for your comments, everyone.

We did call a plumber, and he came out. They were here about an hour or so. And do you know what we found?
We have two septic tanks.

It gets stranger.

The reason hubby's sewer snake came back dry the first time? It was going to the second septic tank that they found in the middle of the back yard.

The reason the sewer snake couldn't get through the blockage? It was capped off!

Remember the leaks I mentioned? Well, apparently the Rid-X would do its thing, and because the pipe was blocked off, the only place left for the liquids to go was out the leaks.
Just think about that for a while.

Apparently whoever did the 'plumbing' work (I use that term loosely) capped the lines off in two places with some sort of rubber and hose clamps.
The cleanout plug under the house, where one of the smaller 'caps' was done, had basically rotted through. If hubby hadn't noticed the smell and gone under to find the problem, well, I don't like to think about it. We're hosting a reunion in about 6 and a half weeks.
That's why hubby put off surgery.

Anyway, the plumber said the second tank - which is about a foot underground, is probably fine to use - he told us a simple way to check it; but without knowing why one bathroom was cut off from that tank, hubby is not willing to use it.

The plumber wondered why the tank was so far out in the yard, until we explained to him that the out building used to be part of the house, too.

Anyway, apparently at one time, both bathrooms were connected to this second tank; while the utility room and kitchen went to the tank closest to the house.

Seventy-five dollars was worth finding out this information, because the pipe going to this septic tank was ceramic. We would never have found it if not for the knowledge of the plumber in tracking down curious problems.

So now hubby will draw out a blueprint, buy PVC pipes, and join the first bathroom to the sewer line for the utility room.
It means taking the new toilet off, buying a new collar for it, and taking out as much of the old cast iron sewer pipe as he can get out.

Things were going to well, but it could have been a LOT worse, so we thank God for small blessings, and for cast iron pipe to go to the recycle. :-)

Hope everyone is doing well. ♥

I knew we'd be doing a lot of work,

but we found out today it will be a lot more.

We thought we had a plugged sewer line.
Rented a snake and put it through two different... clean out points.
One run came back completely dry. It didn't get to the septic tank, which it should have done easily.
For the second run - where hubby has to get under the house (he can get on his hands and knees once he is completely under it); he hit a block he couldn't get the snake past. (He also tried some sort of rubber thing which expands to the size of the pipe and shoots pressurized water at the blockage.)
And while he was there, and having me run some clean water through the lines, discovered that there are three different leaks, in addition to the blockage.

And because this house is 100 years old, it not only has PVC pipe from when hubby fixed the washer drain line and the main bathroom lines; it also has cast iron pipe and old ceramic pipe for the plumbing.

We decided we had to call a plumber.

And we're back living in the trailer because only the washer and the kitchen lines are uncompromised.

We figure any plumber that comes out probably won't touch it, really. It's not going to be an easy job.
We're expecting easily a thousand dollars or more for an estimate.
*sigh*

Oh well.

Hope you all have a blessed week! ♥