Wacky Wednesday

I know it's been a while again...I've been working on some things that are taking some time. Eventually I'll post those, but for now, here's something I did yesterday...

I used to like to mow. At our old house, our yard was about the size of a postage stamp, so even if I weed-eated around the whole house and the whole fence line, and mowed the whole yard with a push mower, I was done in like 30 mins. Now we have a big yard, which I love for some reasons. It's great for the dogs and potential kids, and we live in the country, so it's quiet and peaceful, and is actually one of the main reasons we decided on this house. But wow is it ever painful to mow. By the time I'm done weed-eating here I can't feel my arm (because the machine is so heavy and it takes forever) and then you have to push mow around like a million trees, a swing set, and a very long fence line (inside and outside). And then the riding part after all this takes at least a few hours. To do the whole yard well probably takes at least 5-6 hours.

So anyways, I always put it off as long as I can. I bet our neighbors don't like us because a few of them have Better Homes and Gardens yards. Yesterday it just had to be done. So I cheated, and skipped the weed-eating and push mowing, and was just going to do the rider in the front. I just wanted to be done, so I was driving the mower about as fast as it would go. Narasimha was in the back yard grooming the dogs. We have a ditch that goes along the road in the front yard, and it's curved, and then there's this (not well-kept, of course) landscaping thing in the front right at the top of the ditch, and it has these big bricks going all the way around the outside of it. Ok, now stay with me if you made it through all that... I was mowing, and I went down into the ditch, and back up, at a funny angle, headed toward the bricks from the landscaping. I was turning to go along side the bricks, and I accidentally ran into the bricks, mower full speed, with my front tires turned, and the mower leaning at an angle as it was turning out of the ditch. When I hit the bricks, the mower stopped instantly. I was tipped to the side like the mower was, and the next thing I know, the impact of the stop has put me on the ground, on a hill, beside my mower with the blade still very much moving. The mower is new, so since I fell of and my weight was off the seat, it shut off pretty quick. But still, the first thing I thought as I was landing (and I was landing about as fast as I realized I was falling) was that "I'm going to get mowed!" And then I wondered, without me on there leaning away from the ditch to keep it up, if it would just roll onto its side, right onto me. But, none of the above. As I was getting up I didn't even bother to see if any of the neighbors had seen me, I was so embarrassed (although now I wonder if they did).

I am thankful I didn't get hurt, although my elbow is a little sore because I think I landed funny on my arm. It probably could have been really really bad, but it's not, so it just makes for a random and funny (hopefully, since I put it here for you to read) story about my Wednesday.

The End of the Flood (for us)

Well, Narasimha did end up staying at work on Friday night. He worked for a few hours on Saturday morning, and by the time he was done, the road was open. He got home right as I was leaving for the baby shower. We made it to our wedding that night.

The water around here has been receding ever since, and moving on downstream, where I hear in southern Iowa they are now getting the brunt of our water.

I don't think anyone in our town sustained massive damage - lots of wet basements but no large-scale destruction. If you have seen the news at all, it is pretty devastating to look at pics from parts of Des Moines, lots of Cedar Rapids, and a good chunk of Iowa City. Not to mention many many other small towns that didn't make the news with the spotlight hanging on those bigger cities, some of which are completely under water.

I am so sorry for those who lost "all" in the flood. My stupid leaky basement doesn't even come close. Yes, it has been annoying, but not life-altering, and I still have a place to sleep, all my personal belongings intact, water to drink, etc. There are many in Iowa (and surrounding states too) who won't be able to say that for a while.

Flood - Update

As I was writing my last post on Wed. evening, the rain was starting. It must have rained most of the night because on Thursday morning when we got up our basement was seriously soggy. It'll probably take us a week to get it all dry - I think this is the wettest we've had it. We use towels, our steam vacuum, a dehumidifier, fans, and lots and lots of time and effort. I will be jumping for joy when Lowe's calls to tell us that these window wells are in.

Thursday morning Narasimha didn't go into work because he thought the road might close. By noon it still hadn't, so he went for Thursday afternoon. All afternoon we were hearing that our road might close, and the water kept creeping up. He finally did make it home ok yesterday evening but he said the water was partially covering the road and people were just driving through it.

This morning he found out right before he left for work that the road was closed. He had to take an alternate route. Luckily a road that wasn't open on Monday night when he had to take that huge detour now is, so it took him less than an hour to get there (he was late). The bummer is that he is actually On Call this weekend, and has to be able to get to the hospital within about 20 mins of getting called, so unless that road opens up today he will have to sleep at the hospital tonight :(. I tried to go into town so I could have lunch with him, and the road was still closed, and actually more flooded than it was on Monday evening.

If you're following the news at all, they are saying that many big rivers in Iowa are at or above record flood levels, and have still not crested. They are also predicting more rain over the weekend I think. Many of Iowa's bigger cities are under water or close to it.

I have a baby shower and a wedding tomorrow - we'll see if I can make it.

Flood!!!

We live in Iowa, and as you may have read or heard in the news lately, just about the whole state, and much of the Midwest, is dealing with a little (or a lot of) extra water right now.

Our basement has been flooding, but actually not as a result of all this recent flooding that has been going on. We found out that it always has, and that the guy who sold us the house basically lied and said that he fixed the problem, when really he didn't. He did do some work on the house to take care of the problem which he told us about during the sale, but we now know that he didn't find out what the actual problem was before he "fixed" it, so of course it didn't work. And, our neighbor across the street told us that he did know that it wasn't in fact taken care of, because he had problems with it even after the "fix." Basically, when the house was built, the builder didn't attach the basement windows correctly to the house, and seal them, so if water gets to that seam of foundation and window, it just comes right in. Add to that the fact that the window wells were also not made in a water-tight fashion, and basically any time it rains enough to saturate the ground around the window wells, we get water into the house around the windows, down behind the finished walls, and finally soaking up through the carpet/sheetrock. So we have been having water since about the thaw in March on and off, although obviously with all this rain it has been a lot worse lately. We have ordered new window wells, and when installed correctly with the seams filled in, we hope that the problem will be taken care of. We currently have a very classy-looking (kidding of course) tarp tent over the window that leaks the worst, which has actually helped a lot, while we wait for our ordered items.

But, back to the flooding. During the last week our area has had a LOT of rain. Several inches, sometimes in a few hours. Day after day after day it seems like. So on Sunday we were at church, and a guy there said that during the flood of '93 one road managed to always stay open, even in the worst of it, and that road happens to be the road we take into town when we go. Then it rained a lot on Sunday and again on Monday. We live about 5 miles/8 minutes from Narasimha's office. He tried to come home after work on Monday, and our "sure thing" route was flooded over. Yikes. So basically, he had to go way over west and up north and around, and 80 miles and over 2 hours on mostly soggy gravel roads later, he was finally home. We live just a few miles north of M-town, and between our house and town is a river, and a lot of low-lying ground. And, only a few roads that go into town. So we got blocked off. Our road was still closed Tuesday morning, so he didn't even try to go into work. He didn't think he'd be able to go today, but they opened the road right before 8:00 AM, so he headed in. It rained a fair amount today around here, but the road managed to stay clear. Now we are projected to get more rain tonight and tomorrow so he has said he won't go in tomorrow morning, and we'll see where we are by tomorrow afternoon. The problem isn't always just getting in - you have to have some way to get back home too.

So, that's our flood experience so far. We wouldn't have water in the basement if things had been done correctly, so hopefully in a few weeks when our special-order window wells come in we can put this problem behind us once and for all. People have asked if we have a sump pump - we do and it works just fine - it's below our bedroom and I have been hearing it go off regularly. The water doesn't even get close to the top of the pit.

Thanks for those who have asked how we're holding up in our saturated corner. We're still here and still afloat and probably at this point doing better than many who have more water in their basements than we do :) And, Narasimha can't complain - he's gotten a little extra time off work ;)

The First Snow

Today was the first snow of the season - it is so beautiful! I was talking to my mom on the phone this morning and she said that it was snowing where she was, and I looked out the window and saw that it was snowing here too. I hadn't noticed until then. It is fun to have it snow this early in the year - last year I don't think it snowed until after Christmas. So I was in the holiday mood today - I even started thinking about writing a Christmas letter which I am going to try really hard to do this year. We live out in the country, so once when I looked up there were a few deer just a few feet away from our fence in the back yard. And actually, from looking at our backyard it seems like we got several inches and like it may be sticking around for a while. This was Bella's first experience with snow, and she is so short that it rubs her belly when she walks - I don't think she likes it. She was woofing at it and trying to "eat" the problem - as soon as she stepped out the door she was trying to lick up all the snow. One of our other dogs, Topper, also likes to eat snow. I am really thankful for the aesthetics of the snow today, although I am not sure what it will mean for those who are traveling tomorrow....

Poor Bella is a little too close to the ground :)

Taj and Topper enjoying a run (our back yard).

Standing at the end of our driveway looking down the road to get to our house.

Cat and Mouse

I am normally not really a "cat" person, and Narasimha is actually allergic to them, but I will take the first to avoid the other (see title). It is getting cold outside, and we have already had one mouse inside that went through the whole kitchen making a mess and eating things, including my (Pampered Chef) spatulas. I actually don't know the extent of the damage because I haven't unpacked nearly everything since the move. A few weeks ago I also found a dead mouse in the back yard, about 10 feet from the deck that's attached to the house. So today we went to a friend of a friend of a friend and got some 9 week old kittens that look like potentially good "mousers." They will live in the garage, and hopefully all the dogs and both the cats can learn to live in harmony, although in reality they probably won't see much of each other. I asked one of our neighbors if she had mice in her house, and she said that she did every year until they got their cat. Sounds like a good investment to me! We are going to call the black one "Rocky" and the grey one "Smoky" - like the mountains.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

We have some exciting news about our new house - our fence is finally done! Ever since we moved from I-town - and in reality even when we were in I-town due to the size of the yard - we have been looking forward to a big, fenced yard for our dogs - "the boys." And now Bella too I guess (our new little dog). So we are excited to have the fence finally finished - our lot is over an acre so the fenced part is probably about half of that? I don't know, but it is nice. It has been raining a lot around here, so not a lot of time to enjoy it yet, but the weather is supposed to be great tomorrow, and was nicer today than it has been. Just one step closer to feeling at home here. (I wanted to put a few pics but living in the boonies we no longer have fast internet so that will have to wait).