The Crappy Side Of Country Living

Sure, I live in a place with a large yard that allows me ample gardening space with wildlife that occasionally wanders through. No noise except the dogs that bark next door. No hustle and bustle.

But there's an ugly side to being in the 'burbs. We aren't on a sewer line. That means a septic tank. And what happens to septic tanks after 25 years? Well, they get full. And what happens when your septic tank is full? You call "Hank's Super Duper Pooper Scooper" to come and pump it out. That's nearly three decades of everything that goes down the drain.

A month ago, the folks directly across the street and diagonally right across the street had to have theirs pumped and their tanks needed to be replaced. We were next because the tub/shower drained slowly and the sinks gurgled. My brother took care of it while I was on vacation — I had to do the digging in the backyard to find the top of the tank. It only took me three tries! Last week it was the house diagonally left across the street. It just sold ($155K for 2BD/1BA if you're wondering) and this could have been to be completed as part of the final inspection. Right now, and what is prompting this post, is the house two door down. I suspect their drains were backing up, too, since there was a plumber there earlier in the day.

Odd that everyone's tanks were full at the same time. It may be that all this rain and saturated ground hasn't allowed the water to flow out of the tanks? Septic tanks have holes in them to allow the liquid to seep out...generally into a leech field which is basically a lot of gravel adjacent to the tank and under ground.

The side effect of no sewer is no garbage disposal. And that means bad food and plate scrapings go into a bag on the counter. And it's summer so that means flies. And if there are flies, maggots are sure to follow. Ugh.

Country living. It ain't all a bed of roses!