January 12 -16, 2009

Oh what a horrid week we had. Our plumbing slowly stopped flowing out of the house. Not a big deal right? Just add some drain cleaner and you're good to go. Not! Ok, we'll snake the drain to find the obstruction. This was only a temporary fix. So let's use a longer snake, 50' instead of 10'. Ah ha! The drains empty. Yea!! Oh but with the next flush or bath they backed up again. Now we remove vent covers to find possible clog(s). Success! The snake has hit something where the sewer line exits the house but we are not able to break through with the snake or an auger.

By now, Thursday, we are starting to smell sewer gas in the house and we must now bring in the professionals but they cannot come until Monday. So we pack the necessities and our pets (3 dogs & 1 hamster), and move in with my mom across town.

The plumbers arrive and we are told that all that we have done should have cleared the line IF the problem was in the house. They remove the vent cover where we found a blockage and with the use of a power auger they are able to clear it but something beyond the vent has caused it to clog. Utilizing a camera and a snake they are able to see that we have roots in our line. With the power auger they are able to remove up to 10' of roots. Now we have movement and all the lines in the house are flowing smoothly but as soon as it starts to warm up outside we have to replace our sewer lines.

With all of this fun and excitement we veered from our curriculum this week. The boys continued with their math and reading assignments only. They assisted and/or observed all of the work we did on the plumbing while we explained the ins and outs of plumbing. But this week they learned a trade or skill if you will. How many 7, 9, & 10 year olds do you know that can tell you how to snake a drain, how to use an auger, how to install plumbing, and tell you how and why it works? So I don't feel too bad about only covering reading and math.