A must have item when living in Siberia

This past summer we had a load of sand brought in for work that needed to be done around the house and property. Unfortunately, with how the house and existing drive is positioned, there is little space to dump loads of coal, sand or gravel upon delivery. (We have already had to rebuild our front gate to the driveway since several tractors and trucks making deliveries have hit it while backing into our property! But, the new fence is a bit wider and looks much better than the existing one did!) Due to the lack of space, this particular load of sand had to be dumped right over the access hole which is used to pump the septic tank. We felt most prepared for the load of sand to be delivered since we arranged ahead of time for the septic tank to be pumped one last time before the sand truck arrived. 

Speed forward to this winter and the sand pile which was not all used before the snow fell is now frozen. We moved into our new house and about a month later, unexpectedly for us, the septic tank needed to be pumped! Oops! 

Now the temps are in the mid -20's and it is a bit chilly to be "playing" in sand. But, life goes on even when it is cold outside! So, off my hubby went to dig out the septic tank access hole in the middle of a frozen pile of sand. Thankfully, a friend of ours who lives in a village not too far from ours called to ask if David needed any help with this fun project! He came over and joined David in digging. 

They got it done much quicker than if my hubby had been digging all alone. Thankfully, my hubby guessed the position of the "target" pretty accurately and they dug right to it quickly.

The septic pumper guy who we had used the last time had already changed jobs (don't blame him one bit) and we had to find a new guy this time. If there is one thing you learn when living in Russia it is that "svyazy" or connections will help you get it done! Knowing people is very important here to survive and not go insane in the process. In this case, we asked our next door neighbor if he knew of anyone who pumps septic tanks. Turned out he had worked with a guy in the past who was now had a septic pumper tank rig and he gave us his number. Score! So, ended up being not very long after the guys finished digging out the access hole that this guys' son-in-law shows up to do the job.

We were excited because within a short amount of time we were pumping away! Just as the job is about done, David notices the guys seems to be "disturbed" about something. As soon as he pumped the tank the "contents" were running back into the tank! He told us the shut off valve had broken so he was going to have to drain the contents back into the septic tank, drive the truck home to fix the valve and come back tomorrow to empty the tank again!

A few minutes later he explains to David that the valve had actually froze open and he could not shut it off to keep the contents from flowing back into the tank. So, when something freezes in Russia what do we do? We break out the gas/propane torch! 

No kidding! These little contraptions are used in many situations to keep things warm or to defrost them. I may be able to get some good pics of other uses for a blowtorch around here. If so, I will be sure to share them with you! 

Today's use is to defrost the shut off valve that has frozen open on a septic tank truck. That's right! If it is metal and frozen, just take a blow torch to it! So, that is just what our septic truck driver did!

See the flames!

Within a few minutes he was good to go and back to, again, pumping our septic tank. I was a little concerned about the fumes from the septic tank and the torch usage at the same time but we are all still alive and the guy drove away unharmed. Maybe I was just alarmed for no reason as I often get here when I see men using these things! Well, I do recall some remarkable blow torch stories....