Life As Usual

I'm happy to report, that since the flood, it's been life as usual pretty much. The weather bounces back and forth between gray, wet, gloomy, in the high 30's to low 40's; to clear and cold, usually hovering right around freezing.

Carson got one of his tri-annual (or perhaps quarterly) home haircuts from mom. He won't let anyone else cut it but me. So, for the better part of 5 years, I've been his barber. It finally occurred to me to look in the library for a book on cutting hair. Well, I found just the ticket: a great book with step by step instructions to guide parents in cutting their kids' hair. The hair cut wasn't barber shop perfect, but it's the best one I've ever given him.

What's the difference between a bad hair cut and a good one? Two weeks.

After the Flood

Here are a few photos of the yard since the waters have receded. There are still big puddles around, but the house is quite safe (even though it's still raining).
















You can see the row of sandbags that are going across one leg of our driveway and along our low rock wall.

There are still big puddles out back.

Comments and Observations from Carson's World

The other day when Carson first saw our house surrounded by water, he said the house was like a houseboat. At the time, I was not amused in the least because a houseboat is designed to float. Our house is not.

Jim bought an oiled work jacket and some new boots recently. They were sitting in the living room when Carson put them on. The jacket went down to his knees, and the boots came up almost to his knees. He began to shuffle around the kitchen and spoke in the deepest, gruffest, manliest voice he could muster. He said that he was a real man. When I asked him what made him a real man, he said, "I want a cup of coffee." I guess drinking coffee and wearing work clothes = real man in Carson's world. I find that especially funny because Jim and I neither like, nor drink coffee.

Funny misprounounciation: when trying to say Washington, he said Washing Tent.

Flood Photos

Here are some photos I took the day after we had the initial flooding. The water had receded a tiny bit at this point.

This is the view looking toward the back yard. You can see Carson's dome climber to the left. And in the extreme lower left corner is a step down from our deck that was floating. Our big front deck didn't go anywhere, however.

And here is the yard in the spring, in it's normal state.

This is the side yard. The river is flowing across the yard, parallel to it's normal location, as a separate fork. But actually, this time, there was so much water that there was no separation between the actual river and the floodwater in the back yard. Previous to this, there was always a strip of yard separating the main river from it's new fork in our yard.

Today, three days after initial flood, we have most of our yard showing, except where there are huge puddles and a little stream of residual water flowing across the back yard. As fast as the river rose, it has receded.

Flood

The fun just keeps on coming. After having record snowfalls, the pineapple express (warm winds) came in and started to melt it all. Then the rains came. When I woke up Wednesday, as soon as it was light, I looked out the windows of the house to see water all around. It was like being back on a boat. But I was in my living room. I wasn't too freaked out until I realized that the water was on all 4 sides. We've had it on 3 sides before, but not 4.

The small river that flows across the very back of our backyard, had breached it's banks north of us, flooding a field that abutts our property to the north. The water became another branch of the river, flowing across and filling our yard, and dumping into a stream that lead it back to the river. It's the worst flood this river has seen in 25 years.

After a series of steps that ended with our having a load of sand in the driveway, lots of empty bags, a crew of people filling the bags and placing them around the house, and a pump standing by to pump water out from under the house, 12 hours and lots of sweat equity later, we had the house surrounded by sandbags and the pump doing it's thing to keep our floor dry. We were very fortunate that even though our crawl space was quite full of water, our floor stayed dry.

And today, two days later, the river waters have receded so that all that is left is a small stream flowing across the back yard. As fast as this river rose, it has gone back down. There are big puddles around the yard, but things are getting back to lawn with reasonable speed. I think we have about 65% of the lawn visible now.

Carson was a true champ- following after his Dad. He wanted to help out in the worst way. I was able to put him to work doing things like taking coffee orders for the folks who were filling the sandbags. But after a while, when he was given a small shovel, he dug in and was filling sandbags as well. Jim was a machine, plain and simple. He and I worked wonderfully together to round up everything we needed. And then he was the muscle putting the bags around the house. Because of the herniated disc in my back, I couldn't lift a sand bag, but I kept coffee and hot soup flowing.

It was truly a team and community effort that kept us from flooding inside the house. For all the help we are eternally greatful. Pictures will be posted when I get a chance.

Power Out!

Just hours after the last post, on Sunday, we lost power. For the first time since we bought the house in 2000, we had a generator to provide power!! It was wonderful. We were able to plug in a portable heater for Carson's bedroom, the fan for our wood stove (so it could heat the rest of the house), some lights, and the TV. Because we have a well, we had no water. But by morning, the power was back on. What luxury!

Jesus and Santa

While visiting with our local Grandma and Grandpa today, Carson was asked by Grandma if he knew who Jesus was. Carson said that Jesus was born on Christmas. While he was being born in the hospital, Santa came. And maybe when he came home from the hospital, his mother had his presents for him that Santa brought.