I was going to put this chore off a few days, just because it’s the kind of chore I tend to put off. But J really wanted it fixed right away – he was adamant about it this morning* – and when I looked at the weather forecast and saw what the wind is predicted to do for the next couple of days, I figured I’d better take this relative still day and get it done. Didn’t take as long as I feared.
I have a very selective fear of heights. I can’t walk across a roof, for example, without getting really dizzy. I’m terrified of transferring from a roof to a ladder – scares the hell out of me. Maybe it’s the prosthetic leg, but I doubt it. When I was a kid, I’d get dizzy standing on a chair. But this sort of thing doesn’t bother me in the slightest, except for the sensible caveat that I know I’m a stiff old one-legged guy and hardly gazelle-graceful. So I took the precaution of using a rope and bringing my phone, but otherwise didn’t get all worked up over it.
Cut, slip, tighten, brace, done.
And then back up. Nothing to it.
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*Yeah, I went over at 7:30 for final-final detailed instructions and also to load up Ian’s fridge and freezer with an absurd amount of perishable food and (mostly, alas) condiments. A couple of real scores in there, though.
I’m way better at going from ladder to roof than roof to ladder. After nearly stranding myself on my 2-story high rooftop several years ago doing some chimney work, I learned that lesson. Now, with a metal roof (and a fairly steep pitch), I just pay the younger fellows with the nonskid shoes to get up there.
Funny, after a short stint as a plant electrician in a steel mill, I could straddle a hoist motor on an 80ft high overhead crane without batting an eye… as long as I was wearing a harness… and had the stupid thing locked out so one of the monkeys wouldn’t come along and fire it up. Now, working in a TV studio as an engineer, I get all “swooney” 12ft high atop the rolling stairway thing changing out bulbs in the lighting grid.
I’m glad to hear that the job is safely and efficiently done. Good for you! Just the pics made me dizzy.
Hope the rope was tied to the Jeep and not one of your alleged “trees” and that the job paid extra. Thanks for letting us know you are safe.
I’ll admit right up front this is a stupid question, but was there a better way to connect the tank to the field? As example, I’m thinking since it was all rock between the two, maybe piton-like pipe supports that elevated the pipe sufficiently to prevent conflicts between randomly-affected surface “features” and the pipe? And, maybe, even a higher grade of pipe?
I’ll confess an addiction to the “spend a few bucks more and do it right the first time” school of thought, – which I recognize is completely in conflict with the Desert Rat School of Technlogy Application (and, yes, I do know this wasn’t your project, but…..it’s still “Desert Rat” stuff…..) – which, in the area of “poop contol” may have certain advantages. Just sayin’…..
It’s not a stupid question at all. There’s all manner of ways it could have been done better. Never quite figured out why these particular choices were made in the first place. Most obviously, if you absolutely had to put a fifty-foot cliff between the septic tank and the leech field – and there were other possible choices – investing in some 2-inch UV-resistant flexible pipe would save a world of maintenance and periodic stink. Expensive, as you say, but you only buy it once.