Old Faithful

(Posting by Jes)
Two comments to put this story in perspective. First, on our property we have a second house (our guest house) that we've rented. Currently, a woman and her daughter live there.
Second, we have a nifty little contraption called a septic tank that breaks down all the waste from the house, chlorinates it, and waters the lawn with it. I used to think this was cool...

Why do bad things always happen on weekends? Saturday night, we returned from shopping to find our renters standing outside. The mom approached me and explained that sewage had backed up and overflown from the shower and toilet and ran all over the guest house main floor. (Luckily, it's all tile). I won't explain what I saw on my first inspection...

Since BOTH the shower and the toilet were full of ...well, sewage, I decided the source of the problem must be outside. Armed with a flashlight, I approached the relief valve between the house and the septic tank. Now...are you familiar with movies involving water and the ominious scenes where little streams of water are shooting from the cracks? Obviously that means there is a large build-up of pressure and you SHOULDN'T open it, right? Well, I had to. The result? Old Faithful in our backyard! I've been to Yellowstone Park before and I probably would have appreciated the scene a bit more had I not been running for cover from flying...well, sewage.

Needless to say, it worked....

To make a long-story short, the septic tank was clogged and full. I opened up both relief valves for the main house and the guest house to get us by until Monday morning. Yep...that means everytime we used the shower, the toilet, the dishwasher, etc...it sprayed into the yard. Just the sight of it made Ashlee gag and we had to keep Mason inside (likes to run through sprinklers).

It's all fixed now, but now I need to clean-up the yard. Hopefully it will rain today. Maybe I'll just plant some bushes there. They'll probably grow really good!

Consider this before ever becoming a land-lord.