28 April 2016

Ding Dong Dell



All this talk of toilets and drains from Tom, John and Rachel  has reminded me of an incident that happened here a couple of years ago.

There is no mains drainage here so we have a fosse septique that drains away our waste matter.  There is an inspection chamber in the garden with a heavy wooden lid on the top in case you ever feel the need to inspect the fosse.  At the side of this ‘well like’ structure is a pampas grass plant.  It is the most magnificent specimen, absolutely glorious in autumn with its striking feathery plumes.  But by the end of the winter the plumes are broken and bedraggled so it is necessary to remove the old plumes and cut the grass right back. 

On this occasion I started to cut the long plumes away and Paul warned me not to stand on the wooden lid as it had started to rot.  After a while I realised that the job was too big for me to do with the garden shears and asked Paul to finish it off with the brush cutter while I went to make a cup of tea.

When I returned with the tea this is what I found...



Luckily he wasn’t hurt.  He blamed me for setting a trap and camouflaging the hatch with the dropped pampas plumes!  As if I would do a thing like that.



6 comments:

  1. We've recently been 'inspected'; no doubt you've had the same! We passed, by the way!

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    1. We were inspected about 3 years ago and everything seemed to be OK.

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    2. So were we, but they were probably just trying to annoy us Lumberjackians again.

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  2. What has Cro passed? Pampas is a spiteful and dangerous plant.
    Our inspections began before the Assainissement of part of the village started. We were obliged to join (€900) and now have to pay twice as much for our metered water. The old systems that did not pass, and are not able to be connected, are supposed to be corrected but I doubt that they ever will until a sale of the property occurs.

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    Replies
    1. Old and existing systems now have to be inspected to check that they are adequate and meet certain specifications. Cro is saying that his fosse has had a recent inspection and passed. The pampas leaves are wicked but ours does protect our land from tractors that try to take short cuts!

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  3. P carries and supplies new lids. I cannot think of anything remotely funny to say about this subject. Sorry.

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