That country necessity.

These are our new and expensive lawn ornaments:



every rural home should have two but few do. What they are, of course, is hatches for pumping the septic tank. Tanks should be pumped every few years to keep them working efficiently but that hasn't been the case in either septic equipped place I've lived; both tanks were left to fill up and become the problem of the next householder. Since we were the new householders we called a pumping firm to deal with our tank, telling them we didn't know where it was, how big it was or, indeed, anything about it. They referred us to a firm specializing in locating septic tanks (who knew, there were such companies).

The Tank Hunter was a cheery Newfie chap "if I'm not able to find it you'll pay nothing" he said, leaving me imagining the whole lawn dug up and no tank found. He came and after a false start he found the tank. He installed hatches and filters and whatever gubbins a tank untouched since 1978 needs. Once we recover from that bill we can start again with the honey wagon firm.