This is our crazy neighbour who refuses to leave! The authorities have gone twice to remove her and she refuses to go. Off she goes for groceries this morning. 4 miles one way . In this picture she is going the 4 miles north. Looks good, right? Problem is, the forecast is for 50 km an hour winds later. Yeah, you guessed it. 50 km an hour from the SSE. Do you honestly think she'll make it back against that? I have no way to see when she is returning as my view to the northwest is completely blocked by trees. All I can do is go out periodically to see if she is coming.

Barely a boat. It's a canoe and it's sure not the place for it out there. Today was calmer in the morning when she went out. I have been watching for her to come back in (against wind now) but not yet. Maybe she will stay out.

Paddling 4 miles against wind alone? I don't think so. I don't get it.........

So far so good John. The water has dropped a whopping 3" (that's inches, not feet!!!) since it crested almost a week ago (last Thursday) It's always very slow to recede for the first week or two. Then, suddenly one morning I will go out to get into the boat and I will have to drag it 20 feet to the water even though I tied it up on shore the night before! The trick is predicting when that will be.

Tonight I went out the 3 1/2 miles and picked up our 14 year old son. He is with me now until Monday likely. There's many kids missing from school because of this so the teachers put his homework online and he can pull his assignments off each day. We are temporary home schoolers!

Today was the worst day for missing-work-guilt that I have had. I just couldn't shake it. I just felt pressure to be there even though nobody has called, I know the thoughts of some fellow employees from talking to some people. I am considering trying 1/2 days next week if the water recedes enough by then that the pump would be running less often. I was timing the pump today and I think that by next week if my calculations are right I could safely be gone 4-5 hours and as long as I made sure the pump ran just before I left it would be ok here even if the power went out or if the pump failed. Apparently some people still think I'm having some kind of a fun holiday here. Some fun........ Lack of sleep, no pay, total boredom, alone a lot of the time, watching the dirt around our new shed erode each day (spent $4,000 to move that dirt here less than a year ago), yup, sure is my idea of a fun time! They really have no clue.

But............I have good friends, good health, great family, a great church family, money in our savings account to pay the bills in spite of this, our home is not damaged, and most importantly, a lake front view each morning when I wake up! What more could I ask for???

A friend of mine is at his home right now and if the water goes up just a couple more inches he will have water on the floor of his home. I have a lot less stress than that.

He is actually a member here, although seldom seen and only a casual reader on here too I think.

Oh, and this is what happens when the wind switches. Hopefully it will change again and take this stuff away. That is straw from the fields. It is just brutal to try to clean up later because it is so thick it stays wet and won't burn.

Front yard



Back yard

thanx for the morning reading Carl. Keep strong I think you are on the winning team.
Chad

In my long winded post about 5 up, I mention a friend who's home is on the edge.

I was just on the phone with him a while ago. So far, so good. Anyway, he was telling me he had helped his next door neighbours come back in today. I know the situation (location of the house, level of the house etc) from driving by when I go to visit my friend.

The man and his wife had been away for about 2 days. The house is similar size and elevation to our's, room to spare but seepage could be a concern. The power was on but apparently the sewer pump was not working. He says they came home after about 2 days to find 4" of water in a beautifully finished out basement. So sad.

It was a great encouragement to me that it is NOT pointless for me to be here even though everything is functioning as it should for us and it's actually boring.

I just had that reinforced one more time a few minutes ago.

My wife told me a story about one of our customers.

This fellow never plugged his sewage ejector like I do. This is necessary in case the backup valve on the sewer pump fails. If the valve fails, the pump empties the septic tank and shuts off. As soon as it shuts off, flood water runs back in through the ejector, through the pump and all the way back to the septic tank which it fills up in about 8 minutes (ask me how I know!!!). This is all fine if the pump runs faithfully each time the septic tank fills with flood water. However, I guess his pump failed during that night. Apparently last night at 11pm all was well and early this morning a trip down to the basement revealed a flooded basement. This happens because once the septic tank fills up it backs up through the floor drain in the basement floor. Yuck.

I have had many people tell me I'm nuts to plug the ejector, remove the hose on the outlet side of the pump in the basement, plug that hose too and put a new hose on the outlet side of the pump and run it out the basement wall to the flood water.

In the pic, the white circle shows the new hose that pumps out to the flood water. The red arrow shows the plugged hose that normally goes out to the ejector. The other end of this hose is the ejector that is currently under a couple of feet of water. Double security against this hose allowing water in by plugging it at BOTH ends. It's all easy to do, takes maybe 1/2 hour to an hour and it's easier to sleep at night. I don't know why everyone with this system doesn't do what I do. I know of NOBODY else who does this. Go figure...



-- Edited by Carl Stevenson on Thursday 23rd of April 2009 06:26:28 PM

Is that your new fishin' chair, Carl?

Little bit redneck with the chair on the lawn, eh?

When we were coming across the field on Wed evening a fish jumped about 6 feet from the boat!

My neighbour was planning to try the fishing out. I have to call him and see how that went. He said during the big flood in 1997 (well,  97used to be the big one, this one is almost as big) he had fish swimming across the shallow water on his driveway when the water was receding. He said his dog caught a huge carp on the road!!!

Later that fall our dog was dragging dead silver bass out of the bush and I was finding them on the lawn

The idea of any fish swimming around where my lawn should be is strange!!!

Woohoo, the weekend's here! Like a weekend really matters to me these days................

Gee Carl I have been following all your storys on here and some of the pics that have been shown are absolutly astonishing To see the amount of water that is there. I have never had to endour anything like that and if I may say hope I never do I give you full credit to be able to stick it out I am heading to the east coast on thursday and hoping for a window seat but with the pics that you have shown I dont think I want to see it Take care of your self and I hope it starts to receed quick

Marty

If you are anywhere within 100 miles of us on your flight I'm sure we'll be visible! I know in 1997 I heard of at least two people who said the pilot pointed it out as they were flying over and told people "See that lake, it shouldn't be there"! I know they say at some points close by here the lake is about 12-15 miles wide....

Todd

It's interesting how it works. It seems the media totally ignores it, or does a bit hype on it and gets it so screwed up that we get contacted by people a thousand miles away who have seen that all the homes for a 200 mile stretch are completely submerged!!! Through all this I have told everyone to contact me if they want the facts!



So much for going out this morning to bring in my wife and daughter. This is the worst wind we've seen so far. I have enough boat and horsepower but 3 1/2 miles each way when it's a cool morning is just not worth the hassle.