Country Living Firsts

Mark and I have always lived in suburbia.  There’s definitively perks of raising children in a neighborhood where they can walk to school, go next door to play with their best friend and have a park down the street.  There’s also the convenience of having your doctor, dentist, grocery store, barber, etc. within a 5 mile radius.  It’s especially helpful when repairs need to be done on your house or vehicle.  Since moving to the country over 3 years ago we have had several, what we affectionately call “welcome to country living firsts”.  Some examples are the first time our dog got “skunked”, the first time we lost power due to a storm and learned that without power, we also have no water (on a well) and how our internet reacts when a horse walks in front of the dish.  This last week we experienced another country first.  Our plumbing is on a septic system.  About a week ago while in the shower Mark noticed that the shower was not draining and I noticed that while he was taking a shower the water in the pipes in the kitchen sink made a gurgling sound.  Upon further inspection we discovered that the flushing of toilets was also impacted and we found that we had some not so pleasant waste bubbling up into our shower and hall tub.  This is another new situation that had us wondering just who exactly do we call for such things.  Is this a job for a plumber? Or is there a country specific specialized trade that this calls for?  Have I mentioned that neither Mark nor I are particularly handy and have had a “suburban privilege” of sorts, where it was just understood who to call for what?  We decided to start with a plumber friend Ray, who let us know that “yes” a plumber is who we needed but he would not be able to help at this time. He referred us to another plumber, Jeff.  We called Jeff, who was very helpful and seemed to have solved the issue through some professional “snaking”.  A week later some issues started bubbling up (pun intended).  Jeff, let us know of a DIY part that we should get to try to solve the issue ourselves, should the problem come up again.  So, off I go to home depot for the $12 part that was needed.  Brought it home, and Mark went to work to fix the problem.  Didn’t work.  Called Jeff back out and it was discovered through digging and tearing up my yard that the septic tank was FULL!!!!  To the top, FULL.  That’s a lot of s$#t folks! Let all of the s$#t jokes begin….”we are full of s$#t”, “wow, that’s s$#ty”, “up s$#t creek, are ya” “what this house needs is an enema”.  I chalk it up to another “welcome to the county living” learning experience.  It’s a relief to be cleaned out.