Spraying-Gurgling-Bubbling Toilet

Since some of my blog friends are homesteaders and live in winter wonderlands like us, I would like to share some of our experiences with home problems in case this becomes an issue for anyone else, you would know what to do...

In the past 24 hours our toilet started frightening my children when it flushed.  It would bubble up and spray all over the place when it was supposed to go down the hole from what seemed to be built up gases.

Incidentally we'd also been having sewer smells in our garage like a dried out trap from the old washing machine drain for the past week, in spite of my husband trying to put more water into it.

Today my husband figured it must have to do with a clogged vent on our almost brand new septic system.  He bounced his thoughts off his very helpful father in Illinois, who agreed, and then he climbed up a ladder to the vent shaft on the top of our roof.  There he found the 3 inch pipe to be completely frozen over and iced up quite a ways down.  He used a broom handle then a flat bar to clean it out, and presto it was fixed. 

It was eerie using the facility below him as he scraped out the pipe.  He hadn't told me not to flush while he was working so I did.  Fortunately the toilet flushed normally, and all that happened to him was a gust of sewer smells for a second...!  Oops!

Sign on the clinic door

Bedtime prayer of a 4 year old boy

Lord, I need your help in this.  I just can't make paper airplanes or paper snakes or dragons.  I really need help in this.

Only in Alaska...

This is a sign on the wall at our favorite public swimming pool... check out the yellow sign on the right.

Mt Redoubt

This is one of our favorite views.  As I understand it, Mt Redoubt is a volcano that last erupted about 3 years ago and is about 50 miles away across the Cook Inlet from us.

How to Find Real Food at the Supermarket (flowchart)

Many of you have probably already seen this posted on Facebook or another friend's blog (I saw it at Jenn4Him's blog).  I couldn't help myself...  I love it!  It was made originally by Summer Tomato.  If you like it, click on the link and let her know.

The YWAM Colorado at Cimarron Root Cellar

This is an adaptation of a blog post I made on my homesteadblogger blog back in September of 2007.  I loved this old root cellar where we lived in Colorado and hope some day to have one of our own.

This is the YWAM Cimarron root cellar.  I love it!  It has been there for over 20 years, and stores so much food for the base.  Much of it we canned during the summer and fall.  It also stored our veggies for the garden, our eggs, lots of bottled drinks from the food bank, and frequently even hung our big game until we butchered it.  Smelling of must and wood chips, the cellar with its cool temps and mouse droppings and food gathered with love and hard work, that old cellar was one of my favorite parts of the base.

Over the door was this nest.  I love it.  I didn’t see it while it had occupants, but to me it just added life to this wonderful old place.

 

There were actually two doors.  This helped to control the temperature, and also was bear-proof, which was very important up in the San Juan mountains.

Next is the right side of the cellar on the inside.  At times this can be nearly full of potatoes, onions, cauliflower or other fresh veggies.   When I took the picture it had some heads of cauliflower, a few potatoes and some cabbages.

On the opposite side we stored the canned goods and drinks.

In the back we had two of these bins that stored root veggies like carrots in sand.

  

I hope you enjoyed our little journey into the YWAM Cimarron root cellar.  If you have ever blogged about a root cellar, leave me a link.  I’d love to go visit it!