The Flood of 2009

Well, I know it will be a great year. SIE and I drove to the Wildlife Refuge up near the farm and we got to see some sandhill cranes (my favorite besides the coyotes), a few great blue herons, a huge flock of black birds migrating somewhere, lots of swans, a couple Nutria and several ducks and grebes, and one train! It was SIE's first visit with me and he did real well. He decided I should use the binoculars and he would take photos. I love that digital camera!

I made pierogies from scratch - Yum! And Hapapapa made pork and sauerkraut. No formal meal, just nibbling all day. Kaliedoscope girl had to work.

So after a nice new year's day I was snuggled down falling asleep when the furnace clicked on sounding weird. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep well unless I checked on it. I found a bunch of water flooding the basement. The fire department came to my rescue and by the time they got here the water was above their boot tops and rising. They used two of their big pumps to fight the water, which was broiling in from city drain backups and saturated ground. One of the neighbors came by and told me this happened every year and we both can't believe that wasn't disclosed when I bought the house. The old owner told me the basement was "moist" and needed some work.....but he didn't say it "floods"!!!

The firemen said the water would be up to 6 ft. by morning and waited until they knew that Hapapapa was bringing over a rented sump pump (My hero). Then it was a matter of waking up every two hours to turn it on and check the water level. I think Mr. Beachy had been drinking because he got into his little kayak and circled the basement singing pirate songs, which sound funny sung with a Chinese accent.

The water started going down the drain in the morning and I was able to get some plumbers out to plan what we should do. They will begin some major back-up valve drain work on Monday. We have snow on the ground again and predictions of 7 days of rain starting Monday so I will be happy not to have the flood worry too much longer. By 2pm I was able to get the furnace on again (by myself! amazing!) And thanks to Kaliedoscope Girl's frequent comforting phone calls, I am able to relax.