We hired a couple men today to dig out the soak away for the septic tank. If you remember last year we had to have the septic tank emptied. That was the first time that we had to have it emptied since it was built almost 20 years ago. The reason that we had to have it drained was because tree roots had gotten into the soak away pipe and caused the tank to over flow. This septic tank does not have field lines; rather it has a pit that is filled with large stones; covered with cement blocks, then a layer of plastic (we used a couple tarps) and the whole thing is then covered with gravel. We thought that maybe the erosion had filled it in and it could not drain but when we opened it we found out that it was tree roots. The men took out all the stones; Steve replaced the drain pipe and extended it; we put about 3 gallons of rock salt all around the pipe to deter the roots. The men put all the stones and cement blocks back added the tarp and closed the pit. The pit is huge. It was easy for both men to stand inside the pit and work. We only had them uncover the part of the pit that had the tree roots. Hopefully it will last for another 20 years. I told them that we would be dead before we had to open the soak away again. The septic tank has not filled up since we drained it so the ground pit was dry and easy to work in.
One of the guys that we hired is Anthony, the evangelist that is trying to gather enough money to pay for his dowry. He was happy to get the work. Slowly but surely he will get the money he needs.
Zorash and Amina came today and roasted the grain. Zorash never comes to work until 9:00 but Amina came at 7:00. She helped us build the fires; Steve and I stirred one of the pots of grain while she stirred the other. Actually Steve did most of the stirring; I fanned the fire! Ha! When Zorash arrived she took over.
Red and his helper came this afternoon to hang more of the fence spikes. He said that he had to buy a new paint sprayer. I asked him what happened to his other sprayer; he had not had it long enough to have worn it out. He said that the engine over heated and burned up. He said that it had a thermostat that made it cut off about every 15 minutes. He decided to remove the thermostat and run it without it. Are we surprised that he burned it up? He needed help paying for the new one so we made a deal with him. We need gravel so he is going to haul gravel for us in exchange for the money to pay for the paint sprayer.
Take care and have a great day!
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
