My husband is a champ. I mean, men end up having a lot of the nasty jobs at home, but this one took the cake. My kitchen sink has been clogging lately, and like the wonderful handy guy that he is, he set about finding the problem and working a solution. Fortunately, all the guts of my kitchen plumbing are accessible from my basement ceiling, and it was easy to get to. Otherwise, this would have been a nearly impossible fix.
(Warning: the next paragraph could turn your stomach...not meant to be read around meal times.) I was upstairs putzing around while Kirk commenced the sleuthing. I heard some banging, and sawing, and then a loud, groaning, gutteral sort of..."UGGHHHH!!!" I raced downstairs, to find him doubled over, gagging and groaning in disgust. I saw the nasty in a pan, but he said, "I know you've had babies and all, but don't look up." Of course, I looked and it was absolutely the most disgusting sight I've seen in the United States. I will spare you the details, but suffice it to say that it was not what you would have expected to see in the drain line from a kitchen sink. He had cut the 3" PVC pipe a few feet from the bottom of the sink, and found it solid with a thick white-ish substance, with a few beans, pieces of corn and other various pieces of food thrown in. It was filled like this for about 10 feet. And the smell, well, I don't even want to begin to describe it, but we both covered our noses while we worked to remove the offending mess.We were baffled.
What could it possibly have been? We got it cleaned up and the pipe changed out after a good 2 hours of hard and foul labor. He took a long hot shower and we literally threw away his clothes.
The next morning, I was working at my newly well-drained kitchen sink when it dawned on me: the dutch oven bread. I have just started making this bread in recent months, probably ten times, and each time I make it (as those of you who have tried it know) there is a fair amount of residual dough left in the bowl when it is dumped onto the counter to rest before baking. Because this recipe is a very wet dough, it doesn't come out of the bowl neatly; there is always a bit left sticking to the sides of the bowl that must be cleaned up. I had been washing this in the sink because it is so liquid. For the past few months, it has been collecting in my drain line, rising, and filling the line, fermenting...over and over again. And then consequently collecting other small bits and pieces of things that make it past my mesh stopper. I have a septic system, so I don't have a disposal, and this may have been contributing to the problem, but if there is any clog at all in the line, this dough could greatly complicate things quickly.
If my drain line had been under the house or the ground or buried in a concrete slab, it would have been a HUGE, wildly expensive repair. I am wondering if others have suffered their own mystery clog, and thought I'd better pass along our experience. I hope I am the only one, because I wouldn't wish that repair on my worst enemy.
And a big shout-out to my hero, always, Kirk Metty. I love you. I love that you can fix stuff. I love that you love me enough to clean up all the nasty stuff in my life.
