Yesterday's Triathlon...

You already read about the cycling leg of the triathlon.  You missed out on the swimming leg and the hauling 100 pound bags of mulch leg.  :D

 

If you've seen the weather lately, you've seen that we've had more than 6" of rain in the last 2 days.  A few years back Laura and I changed the water flow in our back yard so that water moved away from our back stairs and towards the drain that goes out to the street.  Unfortunatley our neighbor changed her back yard so that all of the water from her house comes down in a river aimed at our back steps.  Under normal conditions, that isn't a problem.  The water just moves in with the water coming off our roof and heads for the lower part of our back yard and the drainage that heads harmlessly out to the street. 

 

I always take the precaution to make sure that the stairs are clear of leaves and debris, so the drain at the bottom doesnt' clog.  I was extra careful this weekend because I knew there was a lot of rain coming. 

 

Unfortunately the rain was so heavy last night (3" in 2 hours) and the ground was so saturated, that the water from our neighbor's yard had enough force that it went up the ridge that we'd built and right down the stairs.  It was fast enough that it overpowered the drain at the bottom of our stairs and the stairway began to fill.  I heard the water coming in at the base of the door and quickly went out to see what was happening. 

 

Laura had the brilliant idea to build a dyke out of the bags of mulch that we had in the front yard.  I quickly moved 12-50pound bags of mulch (closer to 100 pounds wet) and the dyke successfully diverted water around the house.  By the time I was done with this, the water in the bottom of the stairwell was chest deep on me and enough debris had washed down the stairs to clog the drain.  I dove in and cleared the drain.  I got a rake and began skimming debris out of the water so it wouldn't clog.  Every few minutes I dove down and cleared the drain again. 

 

Laura was working inside to get all the stuff in the basement moved to higher ground.  We had about 2" of water in the corner of the basement and it was coming in faster than it would drain. 

 

After 40 minutes of skimming and diving down to clear the drain, the water had finally all drained out of the stairwell.  I cleaned out all the debris, checked that my dyke was intact, then went inside to help Laura.  She'd pretty much finished picking up the basement and protecting stuff.  There wasn't much left to do. 

 

We then sat down and watched the rest of the movie we had on the DVD player.  It was actually kind of a fun adventure since no real damage was done.  We make a good team.  Laura was impressed enough by my diving down to clear the drain that she baked me cookies.  :D 

 

I slept well last night. :D

 

Have a dry day. 

 

Pete