Please share any entertaining/interesting stories! If you have a photo to go with it, send it to Joe or Sharon and we'll post it. Read below about the cow in the septic tank...
How did the cow get into the septic tank? It fell through the aging roof of the unused third stage of our tank.
When did it fall in? We're not sure but we didn't notice it until the second day we were there (you can't see it from inside the house and it was quite cold and rainy and we didn't go out much). I thought I heard a cow moo the first day but when I looked out the window, I didn't see one.
How did we get the cow out? Good question. Joe and I considered several scenarios, all of which ended with either one of us or the cow in the hospital. In the meanwhile, we fed the cow all of the cow-type food we had - lettuce, cabbage, grapes - and gave it some water. We lowered a beam with cleats and hoped the cow could walk up it. This did not work. We told Romulo and he agreed to spread the word throughout the valley - we hoped that the rightful owner would step in and help solve this problem. By late afternoon, worried that the cow would spend another night in the tank, we consulted some friendly neighbors. After a thorough inspection, it was decided that the only safe way to get the cow out was to break part of the wall of the tank.
No sooner had we made that decision did some relatives of the rightful cow owner show up. They proceded to help with the breaking of one corner of the tank and within minutes, the cow was free. Hungry, but free. At the least after 30+ years, this portion of the septic tank got some use.
