Gray Water Woes

The housekeeper came on Wednesday. I explained to her that the gray water system had been rebuilt and there should be no more problems with doing the laundry. She was happy, and I was happy in my firm belief that the backups were a thing of the past.

That lasted about an hour when Cecilia came to tell me that the gray water was coming into the shower. What a disappointment..it means I have a bigger problem than I realized. There is evidently a blockage between the laundry room and the grease trap and I am pretty sure I know where. Back home this would be easy to fix....a bottle of Liquid Plumber and away you go. But you cannot always procure such luxuries here and right now I cannot get my hands on any. I have a plumber's snake but using it is awkward, requires kneeling and is definitely senior citizen-unfriendly.

They do sell a product for the purpose but the first (and last) time I used it, the fumes near rendered me unconscious and the reaction with water in the trap in the kitchen literally blew the plumbing apart!

So I may just get my buddy Juan Carlos to dig it up and do a re-design. But hey, that's life in the rainforest.

Grey Water Progress

We are making good progress with the gray water leach field. There is no sign of the crushed stone I put in years ago and the 2" drain has proven less than adequate. There is simply not enough outflow to accommodate wash water. Larger tubes and larger rock should rectify this problem.

Juan Carlos has exposed the tubes and is preparing the trench to receive the large rock.

Of course in the rainy season this ground is saturated and the drain can't work too efficiently anyway but that's life in the rainforest ;> )

Repairs

At last the drain field for the gray water system is being repaired. The field is ten years old - I put it in myself when I first came here. I bought this old derelict house which had been built to "gray-stage" but never finished. Squatters had moved in and I had to pay them to go away. There was water and power (wires strung through roof rafters) but little else. The drain to the septic tank was exposed and broken and had to be replaced. The most unfriendly thing to a septic tank is gray water. So I undertook to separate gray water and built the grease trap and leach field. It has served well over the years but has taken to more frequent clogging in recent times.

As I write this, my employee is digging up the old drain and gravel bed and will replace it with two larger diameter tubes laid on top of coarser rock to allow freer drainage. It will be wonderful not to have the gray water backing up into the shower every time you do one too many loads of laundry.

Life is good in the rainforest.

Another Flood

I've just had another flood. My housekeeper is here and the laundry water has backed up into the house. This has happened before but not to this extent. Hopefully nothing on the floor will get ruined. She is busy mopping up at the moment. I had asked our employee to come and pump out the grease trap and flush the grey water drain - routine maintenance - but he has been busy. I guess it's time to replace the drain with a larger one. After all, it has been ten years!!

Never a dull moment in the rainforest.

Productive Times

Yesterday was a productive day...in fact, the past few weeks have been quite productive. Readjusting to single life is interesting, to say the least. But all the things I never seemed to be able to get around to when I was not single are yelling and screaming for my attention. And I am loving it! I never feel like any one particular project MUST be addressed immediately as I used to. I just knock them off the list one by one and life improves continuously. I work slowly and deliberately throughout the day, making sure to drink plenty of water and resting in between projects. Of course, this is dovetailed with my responsibilities as Administrator of the Water Board although activity is pretty minimal these days. Yesterday I worked on editing and revising the Operator's Manual for my Water Management system, particularly the Year-end Procedure which I just went through.

Today will be similar. I have already glued up and clamped the kitchen island which had been traumatized by a somewhat overweight person who shall remain nameless. This is the third such round and hopefully the final. I have cleaned and vacuumed the pool as well. Of course, that is a daily event here. I have some food that must be packaged for the freezer and, well, you get the idea.

My exercise program is on track - 10 workouts now behind me. I am still challenged by the food part of it. I have work to do there but, hey, I've got time on my side.

Glorious Sunday

Well, it's Sunday and I have the irrigation started. My system of sprinkler stations is working out beautifully, I am delighted to say. I have got a little ahead of myself in the cooking department so I will probably not cook today although that will be a difficult temptation to resist. I have prepared and eaten breakfast - yummy fresh poached eggs on whole wheat toast - oh yes, my lone hen has started laying again - yippee!

Naturally, I have loads of other things to do, e.g., a refrigerator crisper that desperately needs cleaning, a new neck that wants to be surgically attached to my bass, an extended handle for the pool vacuum. etc. There are always things to do.

So I guess I'll spend the day knocking things off my to-do list.

Over the Moon

I am absolutely over the moon this morning. I went to get my bloodwork done and I am a healthy man! I was tested in late July and there were some disturbing results. Since then I have changed my diet to eliminate things "bad for me" but oh so good to eat. Two and a half weeks ago I embarked upon the weight loss program I described previously and today I learned I have dropped 3 pounds which means I have lost more than this in body fat because I am adding muscle through the workouts I do religiously 3 times a week. My cholesterol is down significantly to something approaching a normal level and so is uric acid. Overjoyed is not the word.

I intend to be healthy again and stay that way. It is n0t hard to do and the benefits are obvious. I definitely will not get married again!!