Awake 5:40 am Temp Downtown=52 Some clouds 16 hrs 19 min of daylight
Call Garness Engineering @ 8:20 am. Talk with Rob, my assigned engineer.
He will be up here at 10:00 to start the well & septic testing.
I need some heavy duty tools to get the well head/outdoor light flange
bolts off. Sizes 1 1/8" & 1 1/4" Meanwhile, Kathy zips down to her
favorite thrift store, Value Village, looking for bargains.
I call neighbor Rick for finding some tools. He recommends Bob...good
idea. Call Bob on Cell phone..he's working on our Atelier Road extended
today and says: " come & get em!" So with Kathy having the car, I hot foot
it over there & hot foot it back to the house just in time for Rob to
arrive. Before we do anything, I run into the house & disconnect the power
to the well pump & the outside light. Then Rob & I analyze the
situation...decide to get the Cherry Picker out & in place to help us
lower the 21' light pole after the 8 bolts holding the flanges together
are taken out. Using a 3'... 2" channel iron as a pipe extender, Rob turns
the 1st bolt...and it twists right off. Oops! Ok, he tries the 2nd bolt
more carefully...oh, it twists off too. These are aluminum bolts & all 8
seem to be frozen in place. I position myself in the Cherry Picker bucket
at the 20 ft level with rope tied around the top light pole section ready
for him to twist off the remaining bolts, then by lowering the bucket, we
carefully bring down the light pole to the ground. The light pole is also
aluminum, but has a metal pipe on the inside for extra strength.
Rob now starts the well water testing: He measures the water using a sonar
device. The water level is 50 ft. Then he get set up in the back yard to
begin the dreaded septic leach field test.
At this time, I decide to run some errands now that Kathy has returned
with the car. She came home just in time to get some " suitable for
framing " pictures of Rob & I bringing down the infamous light pole. 4
stops & 2 hrs later I have the necessary " stuff " to keep Rob working on
this project.
Kathy greets me with a disappointed look! She says the water & septic
testing has stopped & Rob went down the street to work on the Elmo Hill
septic system test. Kathy reports that they ran out of water doing the
leach field testing. They couldn't figure out why the water stopped
running but it did. That's when Rob couldn't hang around any longer & went
down the street . 30 min later, Kathy figured out the circuit breaker
thing but it was too late for Rob to come back & continue the testing.
Ahaa, my goof. I forgot to turn the breakers back on before I left to do
my errands.
Rob did tell Kathy he'd drop by later to check on us & find out what
happened.
Meanwhile, I make a rubber gasket seal for the flange connecting both the
well head & light pole. The old one literally fell apart during our
dismantling.
Rob returns: He didn't even think about circuit breakers when the water
stopped flowing. He then recommends that I call a service to hydro jet our
leach pipe tomorrow before Rob begins the testing. That end cap pipe had
accumulated a lot of dirt that is clogging the leach end pipe. I get right
on the phone & call " Ole McDonald's Hydro cleaning service. They will be
up shortly after 8:00 am tomorrow.
Dinner: BIG hamburger(on bun), leftover salmon, toast & salad.
Lights out: 11:20 pm
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