![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Fixing a Hole
Jan. 28th, 2014 08:00 pmThe mobile RV repair guy arrived this morning about when he said he would, after having to telephone me to have me wave him in (this on a three-block long street with only a few houses on it, and with our number on the outside of our house; I blame GPS-based navigation systems — people won't listen to directions). Lisa showed him the problem and they started poking around. He was bemused that Kit (the manufacturer of the trailer, now out of business, but they lasted more than fifty years) routed the bathroom sink into the "blackwater" tank along with the toilet, while the bathtub and kitchen sink went into the "graywater" tank. He insisted that this was illegal, but I think it's just that it's not common with the other manufacturers. Kit says in their manual that this is to balance the water load in the two tanks.
Anyway, after he and Lisa spent about 40 minutes looking through things, his diagnosis was that the blackwater tank is clogged up with debris, and that it's causing water to leak through a vent. The proposed solution is to put tank-cleaning goop into the blackwater tank, let it soak for a few days, and then use a tank-cleaning nozzle that Lisa already has to clean out the tank and let it run clear. With luck, this will clear the backup that's causing the leak and we won't have to go through the expensive and hasslesome shop work to have the tank replaced.
After lunch today, Lisa hitched the utility trailer to my van and brought it around to the almost-depleted wood box, and we spent an hour unloading the half-cord of Douglas fir from the shrink-wrapped pallet into the box. We discovered that we should probably have removed the shrink-wrap (but not the plastic strapping holding the log stack together) while it sat out back of the garage. An annoyingly large portion of the wood has come down with mildew and mold. Lisa had me lay out the moldy pieces on pallets next to the wood box so that maybe they will dry and kill the mold in the sun. The rest of the non-moldy wood I put into the wood box.
I had fortunately donned my coveralls before handling all of this wood. Lisa had me take off the coveralls outsideand then burned them before she took them to straight to the wash by themselves so they wouldn't contaminate anything else.
With the trailer unloaded, it was time to fill it back up again, so after work (a mere eight-hour day today after the fourteen-hour-plus marathon yesterday), we drove to Big R in Fallon, where we bought another pallet of wood, eighteen more of the concrete paving blocks, some potting soil to re-pot the dwarf spruce we bought for a Christmas tree (it's starting to show new growth), RV tank cleaning goop, and a new water hose of a different color and texture than any of the others we have. This hose will be dedicated only to tank cleaning for sanitary reasons. We would also have picked up some RV toilet tissue (designed to be easier on RV drainage systems), but to our disgust, the only such rolls they had were Made in China, probably from wood chips shipped from Oregon. We'll look elsewhere for toilet tissue less likely to clog the trailer's pipes.
In the meantime, we have to be very gentle on the RV blackwater system due to the leak; fortunately, the graywater tank still works, so we can still cook and use the shower.
Anyway, after he and Lisa spent about 40 minutes looking through things, his diagnosis was that the blackwater tank is clogged up with debris, and that it's causing water to leak through a vent. The proposed solution is to put tank-cleaning goop into the blackwater tank, let it soak for a few days, and then use a tank-cleaning nozzle that Lisa already has to clean out the tank and let it run clear. With luck, this will clear the backup that's causing the leak and we won't have to go through the expensive and hasslesome shop work to have the tank replaced.
After lunch today, Lisa hitched the utility trailer to my van and brought it around to the almost-depleted wood box, and we spent an hour unloading the half-cord of Douglas fir from the shrink-wrapped pallet into the box. We discovered that we should probably have removed the shrink-wrap (but not the plastic strapping holding the log stack together) while it sat out back of the garage. An annoyingly large portion of the wood has come down with mildew and mold. Lisa had me lay out the moldy pieces on pallets next to the wood box so that maybe they will dry and kill the mold in the sun. The rest of the non-moldy wood I put into the wood box.
I had fortunately donned my coveralls before handling all of this wood. Lisa had me take off the coveralls outside
With the trailer unloaded, it was time to fill it back up again, so after work (a mere eight-hour day today after the fourteen-hour-plus marathon yesterday), we drove to Big R in Fallon, where we bought another pallet of wood, eighteen more of the concrete paving blocks, some potting soil to re-pot the dwarf spruce we bought for a Christmas tree (it's starting to show new growth), RV tank cleaning goop, and a new water hose of a different color and texture than any of the others we have. This hose will be dedicated only to tank cleaning for sanitary reasons. We would also have picked up some RV toilet tissue (designed to be easier on RV drainage systems), but to our disgust, the only such rolls they had were Made in China, probably from wood chips shipped from Oregon. We'll look elsewhere for toilet tissue less likely to clog the trailer's pipes.
In the meantime, we have to be very gentle on the RV blackwater system due to the leak; fortunately, the graywater tank still works, so we can still cook and use the shower.
