I think that is how we will remember this summer - as the summer of water. Lots and lots of water.
Water in the pool, of course. But also water in the basement and water in the yard. Lots and lots of water.
Tonight we had another downpour. And we have lots and lots of water. The upside is that
Oh, the irony.....
Last night when I was writing this, Eric called me. Obviously I left off mid sentence. The reason he called is that I needed to help him bail out the tank where our two (yes, TWO) sump pumps are. They weren't keeping up with the amount of water coming in, and if we didn't bail, our basement would flood.
That after Eric already saved Mia's room from flooding this same evening.
I scooped containers full of water into larger buckets and Eric took the larger buckets and dumped them. We couldn't keep up. So Eric had Cade grab a third sump pump, that we have clearing surface water from the backyard, and we used that to fill buckets. Then Mia got involved (she was helping with other stuff before, grabbing towels and such). She held the hose to dump into the buckets while Eric turned the pump on and off. I dumped the buckets. Cade came to help dump buckets. We couldn't keep up. So I went to turn the sump pump on and off (holding it in the hole, moving the bobber up and down to start and stop the water pumping), Mia filled the buckets and called "go" and "stop" and Eric and Cade emptied the buckets. Much more efficient. Then Cade filled buckets and Mia helped empty.
We were slowly gaining ground. Slowly.
Then water started coming in from the drainage. We were filling the septic tank too fast and it was coming up into the basement anyway. That forced Eric to think through another solution which was to connect the third sump pump hose directly to where the grey water goes (?). We could only have it on for a little bit at a time so that we didn't have more water coming in.... but at least it worked!
The night ended, at 11:40, with the four of us having a much deserved swim to rinse off our hot, sweaty bodies.... no showers as that would have just filled up the tanks with more water!
So yes, this is the summer of water. Maddy's room flooded twice but Eric properly filled the window well so that too care of the problem (not sure why it wasn't done properly in the first place....). We have a yard sump pump for every time it rains, although we are going to install drainage pipes and hopefully get all the neighbours to join in to take care of the problem in the whole area. We have a pool cover sump pump, to make sure not too much rain is on top of the cover. And we have two house sump pumps. We are constantly draining water.
But like I said, hopefully all the neighbours will get on board and we'll take care of this problem for good. It will be nice to not have to deal with it any more.
Oh, the irony.....
Last night when I was writing this, Eric called me. Obviously I left off mid sentence. The reason he called is that I needed to help him bail out the tank where our two (yes, TWO) sump pumps are. They weren't keeping up with the amount of water coming in, and if we didn't bail, our basement would flood.
That after Eric already saved Mia's room from flooding this same evening.
I scooped containers full of water into larger buckets and Eric took the larger buckets and dumped them. We couldn't keep up. So Eric had Cade grab a third sump pump, that we have clearing surface water from the backyard, and we used that to fill buckets. Then Mia got involved (she was helping with other stuff before, grabbing towels and such). She held the hose to dump into the buckets while Eric turned the pump on and off. I dumped the buckets. Cade came to help dump buckets. We couldn't keep up. So I went to turn the sump pump on and off (holding it in the hole, moving the bobber up and down to start and stop the water pumping), Mia filled the buckets and called "go" and "stop" and Eric and Cade emptied the buckets. Much more efficient. Then Cade filled buckets and Mia helped empty.
We were slowly gaining ground. Slowly.
Then water started coming in from the drainage. We were filling the septic tank too fast and it was coming up into the basement anyway. That forced Eric to think through another solution which was to connect the third sump pump hose directly to where the grey water goes (?). We could only have it on for a little bit at a time so that we didn't have more water coming in.... but at least it worked!
The night ended, at 11:40, with the four of us having a much deserved swim to rinse off our hot, sweaty bodies.... no showers as that would have just filled up the tanks with more water!
So yes, this is the summer of water. Maddy's room flooded twice but Eric properly filled the window well so that too care of the problem (not sure why it wasn't done properly in the first place....). We have a yard sump pump for every time it rains, although we are going to install drainage pipes and hopefully get all the neighbours to join in to take care of the problem in the whole area. We have a pool cover sump pump, to make sure not too much rain is on top of the cover. And we have two house sump pumps. We are constantly draining water.
But like I said, hopefully all the neighbours will get on board and we'll take care of this problem for good. It will be nice to not have to deal with it any more.
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