Anniversary Month

First of all... Dad, I saw this in the paper today and thought of you!

Happy Anniversary AGGGHHHH!!!!!!

On January 6th we were married 8 years. Not only was it our anniversary on Jan 6, 2009, but it was the day that the tempurature out side finally rose, very quickly melting the 5 feet of snow around our house. I have learned and been warned that when this happens there is always a flood warning. I had been checking my basement all day for water leaks, etc. At 10:30 pm we were ready to go to bed and one last check in the basement showed a small amount of water collecting on the basement window ledge.

Outside we discovered a window well full of water! Easily fixed. Tyler scoops all the water out of the window well. Then we dug in the snow to find the rain gutter pipes so that we could make sure the were not freezing to allow the 5 feet of snow (now water) to drain off the roof. A half an hour later, we checked the window well again. FULL!!!! Oh no.....

We stayed up until 3 am trying to fix the problem. Tyler shoveled all the snow for a 8 foot radius around the window. I ran to the only open Walmart (30 miles away) to get sandbags. After packing the window and shoveling snow, it was still filling up fast. The rain gutter was leaking near the window, so we put a large bucket to catch the dripping (we were empting that every hour as well). Still the window well was filling up. We found out that the water was coming from the bottom of the window well up. Apparently the ground was frozen and could not hold all the water from the melting snow.

So... After 3 am. I woke up every hour to clean out the window well. Tyler woke up at 6am to go to work. Pour Tyler he was on call the next day and destined not to be able to make up the sleep. Finally the next day I got up with a ladder and temporarily fixed the rain gutter with a piece of quilters pattern plastic. The ground thawed, the rain gutter was fixed and the soil was not saturated anymore = crisis averted. While looking for rain gutter peices at Home Depot (which they did not carry!!!), I heard many more stories of waking up to flooded basements. I am so glad that we checked our window before bed. Right next to that window was my bookshelf full of my favorite books!

Happy anniversary!

Here is the gutter problem fixed. The bottom picture shows the piece of quilting plastic circled. I put this picture up by request of my mom.