Fun with snakes

This week the drain started flowing slower and slower again. So I got out my handy dandy snake and got to work. I know that snaking out your own drains is way cheaper than hiring Mr. Plumber Buttcrack out to do the job. My sewer snake cost about $30 - which is a fraction of the cost of just getting a plumber out to your house.

After locating the cleaning access (and making sure no one started the dishwasher on me) I go ready to get to business.










The snake (or auger) that I use for cleaning my septic lines is a bit bigger than what you might use for cleaning the bathroom sink. It has a large, pointy head for breaking through those hard to clear rubber duckies.










Cleaning the clog is as easy as unrolling the snake into the pipe and using a little elbow grease to bash through any clots you might hit. A firm in and out motion usually does the job for me. I used my elbow grease to break up some pretty hefty grease clots in the line.


As you can see, the line gets pretty grunky during the cleaning. My clog is mostly grease, but I'm not sure I want to know what else is on there.....

Once you've broken through the clog, the drains should flow smoothly again. If your snake is made out of metal ,like mine, it's very important to clean and oil it before you put it away, so it doesn't rust. I simply wipe the snake clean with a paper towel and then wipe it with an oil covered paper towel. I use 3-in-1 oil, cause that's what I had laying around. WD-40 or just about any other oil would work just as well.

It's all about poop, teeth and shoes

One of my daughters school teachers said that childhood can be summed up in two words: teeth and shoes. I think that is because she is a teacher. If you are a parent it is 3 words. Poop, teeth and shoes. So this goes under the poop category:

Our septic tank exploded. We figured being built in 1957 was not agreeing with it. We did not want to have to replace it, because it would be spendy, so my intrepid husband donned his old clothes and dug up the entire back yard with a shovel. We have this conversation a lot, where I say, let's call someone to do this for us...and he says he is just as capable as some idiot from the phone book...and I say I wasn't saying you're not capable ... and anyway you can probably see where this is going. So he starts snaking pipes and shoveling crap, and I decide I'm not going to watch, because he is going to get mad eventually, and I don't want to be there when he does.
He comes in later, covered in it, and says, you're never going to guess what was wrong with the septic tank. I look at him and shoot him a "what?" look...
He says to me there was a banana peel, a pair of rolled up socks, and a RUBBER DUCK stuck down there.
At this point all the kids ran for their lives.
You heard it here first folks, poop, teeth and shoes.