rejoicing in laundry

Wow, it has been a while.  Sorry - this has just been a trying spring/early summer.

To summarize we have had water, water, water and more water and just when we thought we were done with water we had the plough wind which took out most of my yard and disrupted my life.  Perhaps I will be able to write about those trials sometime, but it all seems so...overwhelming.

Today is a good day.  It is sprinkling out and it is grey - that's not so great.  I have returned from the lake which is still underwater with no sink, no backhouse and no shoreline.  I mow the lawn every 5 days, now having to go around the fallen trees, as we still have not seen the insurance adjuster.


Yet I rejoice.  I have a functioning washing machine.


I should explain - this whole spring, through all the water, my washing machine pump was going on the fritz.  

I thought that perhaps my septic field was full and causing backpressure on the backflow valve.  Don't spend too much time thinking about that, it is quite disgusting.  But, the septic tank has now been emptied and still the pump cannot push the water past the valve.  Dale replumbed the drain to try to make the pumping easier.  We tried running without the backflow valve.  Yet the six feet that the water needs to go up is too much for the little pump on the washer.  I could wash the clothes, but they would come out soaked.

In the end we had to put the outlet hose into a garbage can.  I would have to take the water from the garbage can, walk it across the playroom floor and empty it either in the toilet or the sump hole where the sump pump could take it away.  One small load took 6 pails of water - I think they're about 3 or 4 gallons each.  A jean load would overflow the garbage can, so I'd be bailing while it was filling.  It is heavy, messy, hard work.  I can't help but wonder how much water my old washer used, since this is the "eco friendly" low water use one...

Today we finally have a new auxiliary pump set up next to my washer.  The water goes into a little box and a pump takes it up to the sewer line.  I am so excited to just be able to put the clothes in the machine and press the button.  

It is a little disconcerting when all the pumps run at once - pressure system fills the water pipes, downstairs washroom pump takes water to the sewer, washer pump takes water to the water box, water box pump takes water to the sewer and the sump pump is still pumping out the window too!  But I can clean the clothes without feeling like I live in the dark ages.  

For that small blessing, I am truly grateful.

It should only take a few weeks to shovel through the huge mountain of dirty clothes :-)  

Maybe after that I'll find something else to celebrate.