Unmentionables

 

  People romanticize life in the country: the quiet, the clean air, lots of sheds so you don't have to throw anything away.  But people don't think about the constant maintenance. The house needs repainting, a new shed is needed, etc. Then there are all the annual chores, washing the windows in the spring, cleaning the gutters in the fall. Sure people in the city have those chores too, but they can hire someone to do them. But In the country, that someone has moved to the city to make big bucks cleaning gutters.

  One job I especially dread is putting down the sewer blankets. Here in the country, everyone has a septic tank if they've upgraded to an indoor toilet. Not everyone has. The sewer line from the house to the septic tank should be covered to prevent the line from freezing. If the line freezes, it's back to the outhouse till spring thaw.

  You could hope there was enough snow to insulate the ground and prevent it from freezing, but that’s risky. When we moved to the country almost fifty years ago, I was advised to buy ten bales of flax straw.

  Flax straw was best because you could spread the straw over your sewer line then fluff it up with your fork. Flax has the characteristic of holding together and not blowing away. They make linen with flax straw.

  Roseau County was one of the prime flax growing areas in the country. The plant has pretty pale blue flowers. A flax field waving in the spring breezes is a beautiful sight. But they don’t grow flax here anymore. The move to latex paint ended the demand for linseed oil which comes from flax seed.

  No flax meant no flax straw. I had to switch to wheat or barley straw which is not as good. It gets matted down and can blow across the yard. Then farmers switched from the 25 lb. square bales to the big round bales you need a forklift to move. 

  It became increasingly hard to find the square bales. And the price per bale rose. And the wet straw was hard to burn in the spring unlike good old flax straw. My problem was solved by sewer blankets. These thin 20’ x 4’ fiberglass sheets will actually prevent the ground under them from freezing. They come with steel spikes to pound into the grommets along the edges of the blankets.

  I bought two at $100 each. I thought this would save me the labor of obtaining, spreading, and removing the straw which it did, but it entailed an extra job of its own. The instructions said the mats must be protected from the sharp hooves of deer. We have deer wandering around the yard all winter. So now I have to put up chicken wire fencing each fall and take it down in the spring. 

  The instructions also said the mats when rolled up for storage must be kept away from mice. So now these ungainly rolls of fiberglass are kept in a place of honor in the summer. We just got our sewer blankets installed last week. We’re ready for winter, septically speaking. For some reason ads for condo living keep popping up on my phone. So far we’re refusing their cookies.

Flaxseed has gotten a boost as a health food, but I’m sticking with my blankets.