Old stomping grounds and an unwelcome surprise

The first days of March found us on the road again.  This time was a trip back to our old stomping grounds in Connecticut and Virginia.  We spent a couple of days with my mom in Connecticut.  We worked through the 'honey-do' list she always has for us, spent an evening with my brother and his family, and toured a couple of microbreweries. 

We then headed down to Virginia to visit Drew. We drove most of the way in snow and freezing rain.  For the most part the roads were OK, but when we got to Leesburg, things were covered by a sheet of ice.  Carrying the luggage in from the truck was quite an adventure, but no one broke any bones this time.

We had a great week catching up with friends and neighbors, and of course spending time with Drew.  We did a little shopping at the Apple Store (a new Macbook Pro for our trip to Alaska), visited our favorite restaurants, and checked out some new microbreweries in Loudoun County.  We were also reminded why we do not miss northern Virginia traffic!

On the return trip we stopped overnight at Mom's, and then shopped our way up the Maine coast.  By the time we were done touring the outlets in Freeport (and the Maine Craft Distilling tasting room), we decided stay at a hotel rather than to drive the remaining 3 hours home. 

When we arrived home Wednesday afternoon, everything seemed fine.  The driveway was pretty icy, but we had no problems getting down it.  Unfortunately when we got up the next morning, it was a completely different story.  Brett went downstairs to start a load of laundry and discovered water all over the laundry room floor.  Water was backing up from the laundry drain even before he started the laundry.  That meant that the drain for the entire house was blocked.  

Thursday was spent locating and then digging the septic access cover out from under 4+ feet of snow, having the driveway sanded so the plumber could get up and down, and discovering the line between the house and the septic tank was frozen.  We needed a drain cleaner that could use steam or hot water.  It turns out we were not the only people with this problem - there were 15 people ahead of us so they couldn't get here until sometime on Friday.  Without working plumbing in the house, we packed up and moved to the barn for the night.  Thank goodness it has a separate septic system!

The pipe was cleared late morning on Friday and by lunchtime we had working drains again.  Yay!!  The cause of the problem was a clogged filter between the septic tank and the leach field. This caused the tank to drain slowly, backing up the liquid in to the drain pipe, which then froze.  The filter access was buried about 18" under the dirt.  Brett used  the tractor to dig the filter out so we could clean it.  We then had to re-bury everything.  Brett wanted to install a riser (a rectangular concrete tube with a cover) so he wouldn't have to dig it out the next time around.  That meant a trip to Bangor on Friday aftenoon to pick it up.  We installed and reburied everything Saturday  morning.  Once again, the tractor was a huge help, lifting the 150+ pound risers out of the bed of the truck and lowering them in to the ground.  It all went well and we had everything done before the snow started Saturday afternoon.

We learned a few things during this process.  One is that snow is a good insulator and plowing the driveway above the drain pipe is a bad idea.  Another is that frozen septic pipes typically happen when things are starting to thaw, not when it is super cold.  The last is that an active system is less likely to freeze. Being away for awhile likely contributed to the problem. 

All-in-all, things could have been a lot worse.  We caught the problem quickly and we have a backup system in the barn, so what could have been a real mess was only an inconvenience.   We love our life in Maine, even with the frozen pipes!