The Flood

Anyone in Northeast Kansas knows its been rainy lately. We have had inches upon inches of it and no sun since last week. I miss the sun. Its my friend.

The lack of sun wouldn't be so bad, if we didn't have solid clay as our soil (meaning the water doesn't sink in it sits on top once the ground is wet). Oh, and the ground will stay wet for a while because clay is really good at keeping the moisture there. Enough of the science lesson, back to the drama that is our house.

Our house has water issues. We had no idea it had water issues when we bought it. They said the neighbors had an above ground pool that broke and flooded the house. They did not say, if it rains more than a couple of inches you will have a flooded house. Obviously they didn't read the definition of 'sellers disclosure.'

Last year it was rainy in the spring, and we didn't realize our house was flooding until we smelled that horrible smell of wet carpet. And, of course, the smell doesn't happen immediately, the vile stench was noticed about 3 days after it had rained last. Um, yay.

Anyway, last spring (early June I believe) with the help of the local missionaries we dug a French drain 3 feet deep and about 20 feet long. We planted grass, and thought, all was well. It was well. You see, monsoon season is the spring. I mean, the rainy season.

Honestly, if Mother Nature hadn't of dumped 5 extra inches on us last month we would have been fine. Maybe its not 5 extra inches, but we are over 5" above average for the rain around here. I don't know if its accurate, but according to the local newspaper website, we have already had 8.43" of rain this month and the average to date amount is 3.66". I am guessing they are counting April or something because it didn't rain that much overnight. Or who knows, maybe it did, I mean I was asleep, so who knows.

Anyway, part of why we flooded is that the attached neighbor never cleans her gutters. Daniel went and cleaned them out yesterday with next-door Steve's help and sewer snake. You see, hand cleaning wasn't enough, and the broom handle wasn't enough. It took about 15-20 minutes of snaking from the top of the gutter as well as from the bottom to get water to flow down her side. They found a dove in her nest in Steve's attached neighbor's gutter. Daniel grabbed the eggs, but when he showed me they were cracked so he coundn't hatch them.

We are going to have a neighborhood meeting about cleaning gutters. All I gotta say is, you need to clean them! Last year the gutter attached to us was completely full and Daniel cleaned it out. He even found a tennis ball plugging the hole.

We also (impulse buy) got a sump pump. After opening it, we learned the details and it totally needs at least 2" of water and a hard surface to do any good. So, we are going to return that. I will go find a less hard core pump that won't need as much standing water sometime today. Maybe even a fountain pump that we can attach to some hosing. You know, sometime after Alice wakes up from her "why are we driving Daddy to work at 6:30am" nap. Its sort of like extended sleep really. Thank goodness I gave our couch and loveseat away. Now, I can move the living room into the dining room and have space to set up the room in there until we fix the water problem and clean the carpets. Who knew cleaning the carpets would be required so often? Oh, and the front water problem is on hold until the roof stops leaking. The part where Daniel patched it is holding great, but we have a leak in our bedroom, and Daniel thinks its from a cracked plastic casing for a vent tube. He noticed they were looking bad when he was up there last time. We just need a sunny day to warm the roof now, and wham bam thank you ma'am he can fix the roof. I have confidence in his ability.

Ah the random baby emails...

So when Alice was still unripe...as in she was still a fetus...I signed up for silly emails that told me, you baby is the size of a kiwi, grapefruit, or whatever. Typically it was a random fruit or vegetable, which was fun. Anyway, they continue after birth with the whole What to Expect in this week. The tips for the day are about teething.

Five signs your baby may be teething:
• She looks like the winner of her own personal wet T-shirt contest.
• When she chews on her fist, the expression "self-cannibalizing" leaps to mind.
• You've exhausted all other explanations for her crabbiness.
• You've exhausted all other explanations for your crabbiness.
• When you look in her mouth, you see teeth.

I thought the first two were funny, the second 2 reasonable...but come on. A sign she is teething...there are teeth in her mouth? Way to state the obvious internet. Way to do it.

Anyway, in news of the house. The hols still has small amounts of water in the bottom. As long as it actually doesn't rain today, it should be dried out by tommorow morning when 4 missionaries attack the remaining few feet of ditch. Then a small slop from the side of the house to the drain means TaDa! We have no more chance of flooding! That is unless the promise to Noah was a lie. OK OK enough blastphemy.

So anyway, we get to go buy some more stuff from Home De Pot. And axe (with a pick at the end, if we an find one) and a wheel barrel. Probably a smaller one since we have a tiny plot and all, we don't need a huge one.

I went to the store with Alice already and got an anti-itch stick. I bought the benedryl one because it was the same price as the skeeter stick, but contained things I know are analgesics...I mean sure you can use benzocaine to stop the 'itch' but technically thats just gonna deaden the area. I also have considered connecting the dots on my ankles with markers and making anklets...but for now its just Benadryl. Thats what I get for wearing cute shoes and rolled up jean cuffs. 4 inches of ankle and top of foot just asking the mosquitos to eat them. Alice has a few dots on her head, but luckily she doesn't understand scratching. If she did, I would call the doc and see what they recommend. Well, I am off to see if this new found stink is a water leak...or just some random article of wet clothing that has been left for too long. I would not be suprised to find some wet alice item that has been allowed to become one with the spores. Does mildew spread through spores? I know mold does.

Whats that funky smell? And other fun times

Situation #1: So yesterday we had a DDR revolution for Visiting Teaching. Good times! I was ok, but the others kicked my trash. It was probably Alexis' good vibes for having a birthday coming up! Yay for birthdays. Of course that did not stop me from cooling my body in the amazing way created by Heavenly Father. Ok I was sweating like a horse. (Did you know sweating like a pig is not a correct statement since they don't sweat? That's why they lie in mud pits, it helps them regulate their body temperature.)

So in Situation #1, I was the funky smell. Next time I will visit the anti-smell stick.

Situation #2: Daniel noticed a 'mildew' smell when he came home from work and sat on the love seat. I had noticed it earlier in the day, but assumed it was the dirty diapers. 99.9% of the time bad smells in our house are related to the baby's butt. I left for the DDR time and when I got home, all sweaty and gross, I very much noticed the mildew smell. Yuck. I made Daniel start diapers. I was sort of rude to him as well since I had asked him to start them 2 hours before when I was leaving for Visiting Teaching.

He did, and that didn't improve the smell. So he began investigating. OK, the carpet smelled ok in front of the love seat, as did the cushions. Maybe it was his pants. (That made me laugh) He pulled them off and smelled them, nope not mildewy. Then he finds Alice's strap on baby carrier. Man that thing reeked! It was like a combo of "smelly cat" from Friends and death. Heavy on the death.

Under the carrier was a little pink hat...it was wet and also vile. Then he noticed the tile in front of the fireplace. There was water on it. The entire corner of carpet was soaked! We moved the love seat into the dining room, moved the TV and stuff over, pulled up the carpet and found out the under cushion was also soaked. Yeah we have like 10 sq feet of nastiness in our living room.

Bonus: The living room looks huge without the love seat in it. We might retire it, or give it away or something.

So since last night (we went to bed pretty late because of this) we have had the overhead fan on, a standing fan on, AND the carpet is pulled up so both layers can dry. What a mess. Know anyone with a steam cleaner? We will probably have one soon thanks to this. I had been thinking about getting one at some point since we will probably own houses with carpet for the rest of our lives, but this pushed it over the edge.

Situation #3: This morning we woke up 'early' ok it was only half an hour earlier than usual. Read scriptures. I was feeding Alice while Daniel went down to start the big dig! Its supposed to rain this afternoon and we wanted to get the soil away from the house in the area where it flooded. Later we will figure out where the drain pipe that disappears into the ground goes. (That might be the big cause!) So right now we have a hold next to the house where the flooding is, and I dragged a 35 gallon trashcan of dirt into the garage. (It will be even heavier if it gets rained on) Anyone need some top soil? Some of its really good, some of its clay.