oh shyt... (you know what I mean...)

This morning, everything was going great. As I had thought it was supposed to rain today, I figured I would go out and water the garden a little in order to get the most out of the rain, a deeper watering.
'L' came out to assist, as she had wanted to move a small area of earth from the garden to create a little spot to park the bins in (all 3 of 'em), she noticed that there is actually a really bad odour coming from where the sewer vent is...

sewer vent

So on closer inspection, she actually noticed that it was not just a sewer vent with a small overflow of bad air, but it was like the river Mersey back in Liverpool trying to come through the little opening!

See what I mean...

overflow

So, after a couple of calls to some plumbers, the worst one was a plumber at $160 call out fee + $80/1/2 hr... We said 'thanx, we'll let you know' and needless to say, he is still waiting to know...

But, we found 'John' who came out for the lovely price of just $140.... 'WHAT A BARGAIN'!!!!!

Here he is...

john the plumber

So, after about 20-30 mins of digging and shoving an electric eel down the sewer, we were given the 'All's Clear Dear' and permission was granted to flush the dunny and all was well.... Or was it??

On a closer inspection of the pipes, he noted that the thermostat in the hot water system looks as though it is constantly on =(big electricity bill); it looks as though over the many years that this house is (around 80) that there may be a problem with one or two of the connections that needs some sort of attention, and that all up, he liked our house (leadlight windows in particular), and I thought we were paying him to fix the blockage, not to give us his 2 cents worth, (but it was FREE advice).

So, after all that, there has still been no rain, but we are no longer blocked up. I only hope that the next time I am the slightest bit constipated, a mere casting back of the mind to the electric eel should fix things....