Saturday, October 17, 2015

The sewage system. (rant)

I have had a period with very little interest in the blog. Mostly because I haven't been doing any small scale woodworking and also because we have had to do a major rebuild of our sewage system.

This sewage business has really annoyed me. We had a perfectly well functioning old system with a septic tank, but some years ago one of our worthless governments decided that it was too popular to live in the countryside in Denmark, and something had to be done to prevent people from wanting to live there. Therefore they decided to impose a law requiring people to rebuild their sewage systems. There doesn't seem to be a uniform plan in the different communes (kind of like small counties). So some places people have not been forced to rebuild, and other placed like my place, people have. But for some reason it is not all people that have been forced to rebuild their systems. my neighbour for example have not been told to change his system, though it is the exact same system as our old one. And the cleaned water goes to the same recipient as ours. I don't want to be an informer and rat on him, because the last thing I want our otherwise pathetic society to transform into is a rat community.

The long story short is that we have had to get the garden dug up, and some new equipment installed, all at a total cost of approx. dkk 100.000,- (around US$ 15.000).
I have to tell y'all, that I could easily find a project or two that I would rather put my money in than this shit system. Dealing with this has drained me of a lot of my energy and left precious little desire for woodworking and even less for blogging.

I have often seen that Denmark has been declared the best place to live on the earth, and the Danes are supposed to be the happiest people around, I have never heard of anyone at all being interviewed about their happiness etc, so I tend to think that it is pure BS, based on statistics on how many hospital beds etc. are available and so on.


Lately, I have been seriously considering emigrating to a more civilized part of the World. Anywhere but this ridiculous excuse of a country.

So far the following places are on my list: (In alphabetical order)

- Australia, because there is supposedly lots of space, and the climate is way better.

- Canada, because there is supposedly lots of space, and the level of civilization seems to be high, and I believe it is sort of a welfare society as well. I have to confess that I have looked a lot into the immigration process already. I think my first choice would be Northwest territories, Around 40.000 people in a place the size of Spain means plenty of room for a small forest for me, and perhaps even a place to fish and hunt.

-England, because of the level of civilization, and they have a better climate.

-Germany, because of the level of civilization, some very nice and friendly people mixed with a beautiful language and a better climate (in the southern part at least).

-USA, because of the much more liberal laws and there is really nice people and lots of space. I would probably opt for Oregon, Montana or Alaska. The climate is also better.

Anyway, the rest of the family isn't quite convinced that it is time to move on yet, so it seems that I am stuck here.


The new sewage system itself is something called a planted filtration unit. It is an excavation filled with gravel with some special plants planted on top of it. There is an aeration system in the bottom of it that will supposedly enhance the bacteria efficiency.
It is not a particular advanced thing to make, but do to our legislation, things like this has to be made by an authorized person.

The old system meant that for every cubic meter of water that we used, we had to pay dkk 5.32 (80 cent).
With this new filtration unit this price has graciously been lowered to dkk 1.1 (17 cent).
BUT then there is a new requirement to have the system serviced once per year with a sample of the water being taken and sent to the commune for verification of the state of the filtration unit. cost: dkk 2000 (300 $)
There is also a small compressor that uses electrical power of around dkk 400 (65 $)

So all in all the system is a lot more expensive to us. See if you can guess which Dane is not very
happy.

The good news is that the basic porch is complete, I still need to make a few trimmings to it though.
There will be a 14 feet wide stair on the front part of it, going down to the lawn, and I need to make some sort of railing system to make it look more completed.


There used to be an OK lawn here. 

The filtration system.

The new porch 

The south part of the porch.

This is much more fun than messing with sewage systems.
.





14 comments:

  1. Hi Jonas,
    sorry to hear about your problems. I don't think emigrating will solve your government problems - not matter where you go you'll have rules of some sort to follow. It is odd that you are doing this but not your neighbor.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Ralph.
      Hmmm, I had sort of hoped that you would have said: come to USA, no stupid laws and interference from the government. But thanks for being honest :-)
      I find it very strange too, that my neighbour hasn't been ordered to make a new system. Other people different places on our island haven't been asked to do it either, but they might be leading the final waste to another recipient than me.
      My neighbour doesn't understand it either, but off course he is not going to call the community centre and ask them about it.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  2. We are selling our place in Queensland if you want to buy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Bandit1156.
      I would have to check up on my geography at first, I am sorry to say that my knowledge of Australian geography is very limited.
      Our oldest son (13) would love for us to go to Australia. He wants to be a farmer, and you seem to have some of the largest fields and farms down there.
      Thanks for the offer though.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  3. Hi Jonas
    Hum if you want to move to the Northwest Territories, you won't find too much trees there, it is a tad high up near the artic circle...Moving south into any of the other provinces, you will find lots and lots of forest with all kind of soft and hardwoods.
    And like Ralph mentioned , we too have stupid laws, regulations and Blah blah.
    But it is still a good choice, hardy winter, good summer...and home to Lee Valley :-)
    You'll be welcome anytime
    Bob

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    Replies
    1. Hi Bob.

      Thanks for the head up on the Arctic circle. I hadn't thought about that.
      I doubt that you can have as many stupid laws as us, and even if you do, the vast space you have surely weighs up to that.
      The rest of the family aren't exactly hooked on the emigration part, so I would probably have to go to Canada as a tourist instead.
      I'm glad to know that I am welcome.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  4. Jonas, nice things you say about Germany and the Germans, but if you want less Bürokratie (is there even a danish or a english word for it) I would not think of coming here. :o) Every German know all the rules and allways tells you how to do it. Join a German forum to see how we are.

    I allways found the danish way of life very cool and very lessez fair.

    Cheers
    Pedder

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    Replies
    1. Hello Pedder.

      In Danish Bürokratie is "bureaukrati", so I am sadly familiar with that word. (one of the drawbacks of civilization).

      Laws and rules are OK if they are reasonable, or if they apply to all.
      But one of the real admirable things of Germany is that you can drive 100 km/h on your normal major roads (vs 80 km/h in Denmark), and you have no speed limit on the Autobahn.
      That and a lot of other things make Germany one of my favourite countries.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  5. Sounds like you and your family need to come down for another visit one of these days. You can flush the toilet here to your heart's content!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Brian.

      I would love to come down to Bavaria for a nice little holiday. But I am heading back to sea the day after tomorrow, so it will probably be a while before it will fit into the tight family schedule.

      Cheers
      Jonas

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  6. I had to chuckle reading this post for 2 reasons. It brought back memories of when we bought our current house and within one year we had to replace our complicated aeration sewage system piece by piece as it slowly met the end of its design life. (So much for lax US regulations btw) the second reasons was to think how terrible the climate must be that Alaska and England were to be mentioned as an improvement.
    I feel your pain though and I think we've all been been there and are here to lend an ear...Get it all out, say your piece and move on, it does no good to stay too worked up about these things or else only you, not the beuerocract suffers a long time.
    the grass is never really any greener anywhere else, just different issues.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Jeremy.
      I guess that you are right about getting it all out. My wife says approximately the same.
      The climate in Denmark is really horrible. The only place I can think of with a worse climate is Bergen in Norway, or Nuuk in Greenland where it rains more often.
      I think that Alaska might be a bit colder, but that's OK. here it is windy always, and rain a lot of the time. This summer was really crappy with lots of rain (even more than usual), and low temperatures.
      I think I just needs to get on doing some woodworking to get the "anger" out of my system.
      Good thing that I have to do some sawing with the saw mill today.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  7. You are always welcome in the USA! I think you would like Pennsylvania. The Summers are usually hot, and the Winters cold, but spring into early summer is usually beautiful, as well as September to November. Also, we have some of the best forests around, along with lots of rural farmland etc. But like I said, our summers can sometimes be brutal, which is why most of the people I know (including ourselves) belong to a swim club of some type.
    In any event, at least your porch is looking good. I think you need to woodwork a little bit. I've finally started a new project and feel much better about it.
    Bill

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    Replies
    1. Hi Bill.

      I think that I would like it in USA. I spent four months in Minnesota some 20 years ago, and it is hard to beat American hospitality.
      The biggest issue would probably be to find a job, since Mette has once said that she did not want to move anywhere if I wanted to continue sailing. So I guess I have to stay put.
      Thanks for the kind words on the porch. We used it a lot this summer, so it is already a success. I have been milling wood for the stairs today, and I'll have to make those before spring, because Gustav will have his confirmation in the church, and we will hold sort of a reception for family and friends afterwards, and the porch will have to look the part that day.

      We have talked about building a small annex/shed for the summer house next year, so I am really looking forward to that. It will give me an opportunity to make windows etc. so they are ready to install. I am envisioning a timber frame of around 14 x 14 feet. I'll drive to town tomorrow and talk to the building plans department at the town hall, if there is any special issues that I should be aware of, since it is a summer house area. There is every chance that the regulations are different for such an area.
      I can relate to the feeling of finally starting a woodwork project again. We should do that more often.

      Best regards
      Jonas

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