A River Runs Through It

Yes, through the basement, today, a river runs. Well, more like a small shallow creek.

It poured all day. I got ready for church this morning and came out to the kitchen to the noise of mopping. Larry was down in the basement. So I changed clothes again and made him breakfast, a big hearty breakfast. He ate it silently and headed back downstairs. I followed him down to see more water than we've ever had down there. He had been filling the big mop bucket, carrying it up the stairs (!) and dumping it outside, but I couldn't even tell he'd done anything. It pours in as fast as it can be mopped up. He said, "Is that sump pump drain pipe buried under water now??!! It's making an awful noise and I think the water is flooding back down the pipe as fast as it pumps it out!" He added that we needed a ditch out there from the pond to the woods, to free the pipe from being under water. Then he went back downstairs. So. I went out and dug the ditch. The more I dug, the more the rain poured, the more the pond filled the more the pipe was buried. I was soaked, the ground was soaked, the pipe was gasping each time it tried to empty because it was buried under water. I dug a 15 foot ditch, and then a branch ditch off of that about 5 feet long. Finally the pond started to empty enough that the pipe was above the water again. I watched it. It never stopped pumping water, there wasn't a second when the water wasn't pouring out. Still is as I type, and it's still raining. I went back into the basemnt and told him the ditch was done and the pipe was free. Then I cried - over the rain, the basement, the pond, the swampy yard, the water in all the low places that was beginning surround the property like a moat, the ditch I had to dig, I went back outside where family wouldn't see me upset, and heard the pipe gurgling at the house where it leaves the basement. I stood and watched the water spewing out BEHIND the pipe and down the basement wall. It had dug a hole there. So, I began trying to uncover the pipe so I could find the "leak". Went back in because I couldn't tear away the Ivy, so I got pruners and a saw. Carrie and I went at it, and then Carrie finished digging up the pipe and duct taped it back together. It still leaks but not as much.

I was trashed. I came in and spent maybe an hour in a hot bath. Larry gave up on the basement and said we'd just have to wait it out. He says it's hydrostatic pressure causing the water to come in, and it will keep coming until the water table drops. So basically the water table is higher than our basement floor.

It will be raining almost nonstop through this coming Sunday. We have roads that are washed out (ours in fact, but a couple miles from us.)I am worn out, physically and emotionally and I really need to go to bed. But I also want to blog about today before I forget what I want to say.

At least the bog is ok. It has standing water on it, and rivulets have left a track of sand through it in the shape of a tiny stream - actually quite attractive. Hm. There' standing water in front of the house, on both sides, and in the the field behind the house, and the wetland grows every time I look at it.

The whole place is boggy!
That could be a problem - I don't have that many bog plants.