Chapter 06 - B & B Drains !!!!!

A fabulous day, so I caught up on all the washing and with the last load in, I decided to put the dishwasher on as well. It was just too much for the drain and the water backed up into the porch. I turned off the appliances and mopped up the floor. At the time I had a very nice German lady staying for bed and breakfast with her daughter and nanny. When Roy came home he weighed up the situation and came to the conclusion that it was blocked on the corner. It also meant that he would have to dig up that area in order to clear it. Meanwhile my guests were sitting outside enjoying a bottle of wine.
“I expect they will go out for a meal later and we can do the drain then.” I suggested to Roy.
Time was getting on and there were no signs of them going out so we decided we would have to make a start. Roy disappeared under the bushes behind the garden hedge and started to dig. I was in the garden trying to tell him exactly where the corner was. I kept whispering … “Where are you?” … but he didn’t reply. Suddenly I saw an iron crowbar begin to appear above the hedge, so that’s where he was! Roy then had to come around into the garden to see where the pipe came through the hedge. “What are you doing?” asked our guest, eyeing his filthy hands and very muddy trouser knees. “Oh just doing a bit of landscape gardening,” came the very dry reply! … What? At 10 pm and nearly dark? … By now Roy had found the problem but he wanted to cement a sort of catch pit so it wouldn’t happen again, and to put on a top for easy access if it did. There was another hassle, the waste water from the guests’ shower also went down this pipe. We waited until the bedroom lights went out, when we assumed that no more water would be coming down, and then, with me under the bushes holding the torch, Roy did his cementing. At five the next morning a removable top was put in place and the excavations covered up. The whole area was cleaned up and apart from a few broken branches all was back to normal!

Monica Olds