Thursday, September 04, 2008

9.4 morning glory

One might not be able to tell fom my history of picture posting, but there actually are some (a few) flowers in my garden that are not lilies. Exhibit A: Morning glory flower. The morning glories grow on the trellises I have erected to disguise the gas and water meters, since these sightly (?) objects are mounted (relatively) high on the wall on the front corner of the house facing the direction that everyone comes up the street. This is just above the point where the sewer grinder/pump cover sits in the middle of the yard, previously projecting about 10 inches into the air above the level of the yard.
Having put an elevated circular bed (about 20 feet across) around the corner of the house where the sewer grinder/pump cover sits, it gave me a place to put the trellises, etc...
We have a sewer grinder/pump because we live at the upper end of a street with a swale in the middle. The grinder reduces all waste products to fit into a 1 inch pipe and then the pump pushes it past the uphill section. The pump is warrantied for 20 years (don't ask me what happens then), although one of our neighbors had to have theirs replaced in the first year and grumbled that it cost many thousands to have it dug out and replaced. The question of the warranty thus lingers in my mind, as no mention of any coverage accompanied this story, although as no mention of any coverage accompanied the story, my immediate cynicism questions as to whether something unauthorized entered their system at some point.
Behind our house, on the other side of the stretch of woods and stream, there are about 80 acres of farmland. Last year spring there was a public hearing in re. putting in senior citizen housing and assisted living facilities on this 80 acres, which would including a new pumping substation on the corner of the property. We were advised at that time that in a few years, this would imply that our subdivision's sewer system would be revamped and those of us with grinder/pumps would then be connected to a real system and would be responsible (financially) for the cost of doing so. My first thought was, what about my flower bed? Are they going to ruin it by digging everything up? (not to mention the wall?) J thinks it will simply be one of those underground mole machines, burrowing along and going right under everything. All well and good, but how do they get the grinder/pump dug up and carted away?
Oh, J says, they'll probably just change the connections at the house and leave the grinder/pump where it is.
Um, right. An entire, unsightly device, which we now won't need, and we're just going to leave it there. I don't know which I think is worse - leaving it there or taking it out.
The whole building project is now 8 months overdue to start and given the current housing market, I don't think I'm going to have to worry about the choice or my garden any time soon.

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