The Bovine Bugle

Dreaded words to hear around the barn

Today my dad said to me the words I hate to hear: "The barn drain is plugged. I'll go rent the snake."

The barn drain, which comes from the milkhouse and milking parlor, travels 250 to 300 feet underground until it spills out onto a grass filter. Because of the distance, the drain plugs every once in a while. Usually we can remove the plug using a 200-foot plumbers snake. If the snake doesn't do the job, then we have to get a backhoe in to dig up the line and find the plug.

Jonathan begins the snaking of the long drain pipe, with a trusty lab Yukon standing by.

We worked at the blockage for almost three hours and it wasn't looking good. The snake was going up the drain about 175 feet before we were stopped, and over the nearly three hours we gained what seemed like inches. It looked like the backhoe option was going to come in to play. Finally, just before it was time to quit for the afternoon milking, I heard a rumbling up in the pipe and I scrambled out of the way before a deluge of backed-up drain water poured out of the end of the drain pipe. SUCCESS!!!

The blockage becomes unblocked in one explosion of stuff!

We were all glad we only had to pay for the rental of the plumbers snake instead of several hours of backhoe work. We wiped off the snake and put it in the back of Dad's vehicle so it would be ready to go back in the morning. I can't remember having such a hard time getting the blockage out of the drain. Hopefully it will run trouble-free through the winter.

Left: Farmer Jonathan and his father, Howard, after a successful day at unblocking a troublesome drain.

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Posted by Blogger Chris at November 11, 2005 04:59 PM