Crappy vacation
Ron is home all this week. Yay! He comes and checks on me while I’m working, helps me get organized and takes more of the load when he’s home.
We were supposed to go n vacation. Not a big vacation, but elsewhere in the province overnight. Just a couple days. Our province isn’t THAT big, you know. 
But instead, we have 4 huge loads of gravel in our yard because we are re-doing our septic field. Any why are we doing this?
Because the neighbors behind us called the Department of Health and complained.
I’m sure you’re thinking something like, well, if it was a legit complaint and it needs to be fixed, don’t get your shorts in a knot and fix it already. And you know, if there was raw sewage all over the neighbor’s lawn we would have indeed fixed it already.
There *is* the end of a pipe sticking out of the ground. Right now it is covered in three foot high weeds because Ron didn’t want to mow over that area and wreck it. There is no smell. There is nothing coming out of the pipe. The first damp area is maybe twenty feet away, and this is almost over at the far corner of our property.
But since Dept of Health guy and the neighbors can *see* the pipe, we’re obligated to fix it.
This is really… not nice for a few reasons.
One, when we first moved here the lady behind us came up to me in a tizzy one day and went on and on how the formers owners should pay to fix the septic field and they had no business selling us a house with problems like that (Um, we knew, we have eyes…) and she feels very strongly that the formers owners should pay for it. (actually the Dept of Health guy reiterated this too) Since the house stood empty for almost three whole years before we got to it, I’m wondering why that wasn’t enough time for them to call the previous owners and have it fixed if they really felt they should pay, but, whatever.
Two, Ron talked to the couple behind us back in June. He asked if it was a huge issues and if they wanted him to fix it right away. You know, so we could budget and plan. Since it was dry, their lawn looked fine and like I said above – no smell, no nothing, they said don’t worry about it.
Two months later they change their mind.
Is there a wet spot on their lawn? Why, yes there is. It’s also been raining all summer, we live next to a lake, and the wet area on their lawn used to be a swamp they filled in, and is lower than all the land surrounding it. On really damp days , the wet spot covers roughly an acre. The bulk of it is also on the opposite side of our driveway to our house. Our septic field is out back.
Yeah, it’s dumb. Suffice to say we were pretty upset for a few days.
So we’re not just fixing it, we’re re-doing the septic field so it passes inspection and is stamped approved. Any future complaints they have will fall on deaf ears at the Dept of Health. Then maybe they can look at their own setup.
The up side is that it is perfectly legal to install your own septic system, as long as it passes inspection (plus they give diagrams on how it should be done) and Ron used to have his license for this. There’s more piddly details covering how ridiculous the whole thing is, and how un-neighbourly they are being when they aren’t obsessing over their lawn, so to lighten things up, I shall leave you with a picture from the other night.
Self-timer is awesome. Anyone for a round of, “There were five in the bed and the little one said…”?
6 Responses to “Crappy vacation”
Oh, how I do *love* neighbors. That is not work I would want to have to do myself though.
christines last blog post..this could be useful
The one thing I could do without in terms of rural living is the septic. How nice it would be to have sewage! Ah well.
Dawns last blog post..The Husband’s Home
And I totally forgot to mention the current septic system is maybe 5 years at the oldest, so it’s not an old and decrepit system falling apart.
I feel your pain. We have had so many neighbor issues. The last one was when our neighbor threatened to call the Health Dept. unless Kevin got rid of the garbage bags in our back yard. Which were not filled with garbage – not food garbage, rotting stuff – but with old papers, clothes, toys we sorted out of the basement when we decided to list our house. Did I mention they were in our back yard, in a discreet corner, waiting until Kevin could borrow a truck to go to the dump, since we don’t own one? And they weren’t even garbage. Grrr..
I’m sorry you’re having such a crappy vacation – I know you were looking forward to some time off. (hugs)
Carrie K.s last blog post..Spouse Meme
I was going to guess the wet spot was from leftover recently melted snow.
kims last blog post..You should sleep
Hi Andrea,
Sorry about your vacation.
A friend of mine had a similar problem – septic field was fine, neighbor was not.
Best,
Kevin
Kevins last blog post..How to Find Microfinance Blogs