Arrival back in Huntsville on Monday, April 16th was a bit of a rude awakening from Grenada weather.
My project for Algonquin Outfitters was very busy but deployment to Canoe Lake, Lake of Two Rivers and Lake Opeongo was delayed a bit as they were inaccessible due to snow.
I’ll work with them most of the summer. Largely because we have huge issues with their Watchguard firewalls. Takes two weeks and many visits to find the issue, the whole time very stressful as the phones will drop calls at any time. That’s not good when that happens. But it’s eventually solved and smooth sailing after that.
The job that needed fixing most of all was the septic system. I had hoped that the outfall was just frozen when we left for Milu in February and probably it was, but no amount of thaw or snaking seems to clear it. The upstairs sink doesn’t drain and the downstairs bathroom is out-of-order.
Nothing for it but to call the septic tank guys. Nothing for it but for you-know-who to dig up the tank and expose it. Turns out it’s not a true tank (it’s been 20+ years since I’ve been in there) but just a tank with an inlet and outlet. It’s full alright and water around the top. The septic guy and I do some testing, very little water coming in, nothing going out. Smells great.
The next day, there’s water again. I get our little Honda pump and pump it over the hill and investigate the inlet and outlet pipes. They’re both blocked, the inlet with this chalky substance, but it only goes about 5 feet upstream. An old fishing rod clears it and whooosh, here comes gallons and gallons of you-know-what. It’s nasty but I’m happy to see it. Then I work on the outlet. I can clear a bit of it, but not all. I borrow Scott’s little hose adapter that sends a jet of pressure water down the pipe and manage to clear maybe 15 or 20 feet of the line. That takes it to the edge of the hill and I guess that’s enough. I close things up – next thing that digs this up will be a backhoe.
Met with Dale Maw to discuss landscaping and fixing the retaining wall behind the cabana. He advised we cut some trees, so I did. At least now we have some firewood for the coming winter. We’re down to twigs but still having fires. (We will burn the last of it on May 31st!)
Launched the docks, launched the sea doos on the one nice day in May we had. Christy and I went to Toronto on May 28th – I had a lunch date with Cloudli, then golf on Thursday with Ben, then golf on Friday with the cousins. Came back on a ccccold Saturday to pick up our new boat only to find this.
Froze my fingers and toes bailing it out. Was hoping to launch the new boat today but it might have to wait.
So over the next few weeks, I built these. Cost about $1600 in materials but beats the $2000 I paid to fix the sunken sea doo and also cheaper than getting other devices that float them. Even tried second hand. They’re a bit steep but I’ll lower them next year.
