It’s Raining, It’s Pouring, The Whole House Is…

Let me tell you about the first mishap adventure we had since moving to the farm. It involved lots and lots of water. It all begins with a rainy summer day.

A Rainy Summer

It was a really rainy summer last year, as those of you on the east coast probably remember. Sometimes it seemed like maybe we had somehow became tropical. This mishap happened on August 13, a particularly rainy day. In fact it was raining so hard that I kept saying to myself, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen it rain this hard for this long.” I have photo and video evidence of the downpour that was going on outside the house that fateful day.

Right around noon, I casually thought about going to the basement to just check on the state of things. After all, we were at a new house and didn’t really know how the basement handled rain yet, especially this much rain. So I stopped whatever I was doing, dishes I think, and headed to the basement. I opened the basement door and heard rushing water!

The Waterfall

I was terrified to go down and see what that meant, half considering closing the door and pretending I didn’t hear anything. I braved up and walked down the steps. What I saw was something completely and totally crazy. There was a waterfall, I mean a waterfall! coming through one of the basement windows!

It turned out that one of the window wells had completely filled up with water and the water was pouring in around all the cracks. It was a crazy sight! The water was pooling along one side of the basement, and of course it was the side with all of our boxed up things from our recent move. To make matters worse, the water was coming in right next to our heater/air-conditioner. I was sure the water had electric current running through it.

Panic!

I panicked! So I called my mom, she didn’t answer. I ran around the basement saying to myself, “what do I do?! How do I make it stop?” I called Ben and said, “water is pouring in the basement and I don’t know what to do. Got to go! Bye!” I guess I needed to tell someone… ?

By this time, Lottie, not one it miss out on the action, was on the steps. My mom called me back on FaceTime and Lottie answered the phone. “There is water gushing into the basement!” she yelled.

Bailing Water

Suddenly I had an idea. I needed to catch the water in something. I threw on some old rubber boots from my horseback riding days and grabbed an empty large rubbermaid tote and stuck it under the waterfall. My mom, being the good mom she is, said she’d come over and help.

I quickly realized the tote wasn’t going to hold the amount of water that continued to pour in. I mean the window well was completely full and it was still pouring outside. “I’ve got to go outside and empty the window well.” I put on a rain coat, grabbed an empty bucket, and ran into the torrential downpour. I squeezed past the overgrown holly tree, scraping myself, and began bailing out the window well. I realized the problem immediately. The gutters were clogged and the ground was slightly sloped toward the window. As quickly as I bailed, water rushed in again. Bucket after bucket was tossed up and over the large bushes. I started praying “God, make it stop raining! Please!”

After a time, I was finally able to empty most of the water out and the rain tapered off a bit. Completely drenched, I went back inside to see how the basement was fairing. The water stopped coming through the window but most of our belongings in the basement were sitting in an ever creeping puddle of rainwater.

The Aftermath

My mom came and helped me so much with the clean up. She convinced me that the water most likely did not have an electric current in it and that we could probably salvage most of the things if we emptied out the boxes.

It turned out that nothing was ruined except the boxes. Everything inside was dry. What a kind heavenly Father to protect our silly earthly possession like that.

You bet every time it rains though I’m check that basement, even if its the middle of the night! Also, the next day, I went a purchased window well covers for all the windows missing them and those gutters got cleaned out asap.

More Mishap Adventure Stories To Come

This is just the beginning of our adventures on the farm. Stay tuned. Our second mishap includes mice!

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