In the background the Stitch Witch's Admiral had phoned. He has a set of rods that could be just what was required. Silver Vixen was off out and resolved to collect the rods on her way through. She returned mid-afternoon. GF lifted the inspection cover and started again.
- He started jiggling and rotating the rods...
- It didn't work.
- He then tried the rods in the drain itself.
- It didn't work.
- He went back to the inspection cover and jiggled again.
- It didn't work.
- He returned to the drain and tried plunging it, scraping it and generally fiddling.
- There was a huge belch and the water disappeared.
The drain was clear. he got the pressure washer to clean it off a bit more and to clean the rods. That was when the Gorse Fox had a good idea.
Well maybe it wasn't such a good idea.
The rods included a half-moon shaped blade. If he could just push that up from the inspection hatch it would clear any remaining debris.
Well that was the theory.
In practice the half moon was hinged (like a grapple) and once in the pipe it had no intention of coming back out. GF pulled and yanked. Nothing. He dropped down into the inspection hatch and pulled and yanked, using his foot as a lever. Nothing.
He sat there giggling. He could see that he had replace a simple blockage with a solid piece of brass. He could foresee a jackhammer being needed to drill through the driveway to retrieve it. It was time to call the Admiral and ask for advice. "Turn it to the right and jiggle it" came the considered response.
Returning to the hatch, and dropping to the bottom he again grabbed the rods. He turned them to right and jiggled them. It took a while. It took a lot of jiggling. It also took a lot of twisting... but voila the rods came free and all was well with the world.
And to think some folk in the City will have wasted an afternoon at a Christmas Party when they could have been having fun like the Gorse Fox!
1 comment:
Sounds like a Christmas we had once. My mother reported that the kitchen sink was blocked. We investigated the u-bend - that was fine. We ventured outside to where the pipe exited the side of the building and led down to the drain. We took the joint apart to find it was clogged with this white greasy, solid mass. Turns out that Mum had decided to get rid of the candle stubs to make way for whole candles ... by flushing the remnants down the sink with hot water. Partially melted candle remnants hitting a right-angle constriction when the air temperature was around freezing made for some ideal coagulation!
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