I have a history with the septic system at the family cabin.  I don’t remember when it was, exactly, but one year (a long time ago) I was at the cabin with my friend Hi-D.  It was the middle of winter, and after a rough crossing to get here – the weather was incredibly stormy (and we were at the bow of the ferry) we were glad to relax.  One of my favourite pastimes, anytime – but particularly here – is a bath. It’s late (I’m a night owl), I had a bath and then got ready for bed. Just as I’m finishing up, the toilet starts back flowing. Nothing gross, thankfully – just water – but it was gushing like a fountain.  I eventually got the flood under control.  That event led to the complete re-building and re-design of the septic system at the cabin.
Fast forward to tonight. I’m hearing this weird buzzing. It’s loud and distracting. I go downstairs, but the sound isn’t from there. It seems like it’s coming from outside, so I walk around the house (in the dark). I see this box – that was installed when the new septic field was installed – it has a light on top. This light is normally off, but tonight it was on and this box was making the most horrible noise.  I call home and chat with my family. They know the alarm needs to be turned off, but they can’t walk me through the steps to accomplish this.  I end up opening the box and see a bunch of wires. I eventually figure out how to turn off the horrible sound.  Apparently it’s caused when the pump’s been running too much, which means that there’s too much water in the ground.
At least this time it was a buzzer and not a bathroom flood.