Just saw this! Sure hard to have fire season start so early.
Hopefully, it will be later here, as we have had LOTS of rain...….and about 3 inches of it gushed into our walk-out-basement! Came up through the plumbing and in the door. Not fun! We did have lots of help as dau. and SIL were here for our 62nd anniversary, which coincidentally was the date of this flood, the first since 1927, on Brave Bull Creek. At least is wasn't as bad this time, or the entire basement would have been full! Still have some clean-up to do but stuff which needed to be hauled to our dump is gone. Now we are waiting for 'experts' to tell us if walls have to be removed, floor tiles treated as "hazardous waste", due to asbestos in the tile!!!! At least, back in '27 the family didn't have government 'experts' telling us how to handle our 'recovery'!!! Back when built, the concrete walls were so cold, we put up insulated walls inside the concrete walls.
It did sort of seem like one 'wreck' after another for a few days, as our old, unused cistern, which we SHOULD have destroyed years ago, caved itself in, leaving a gaping 6' x 6'x about 8-10' deep hole in the middle of our deck. In the 'old' days, they dug a hole and plastered the sides, then set a large chunk of concrete with a hole for a lid over the top of the cistern. We knew it leaked, but since we no longer used the water except occasionally pumping it onto the yard, thought there was no hurry and we could cave it in "when we have time"...….Those famous last words sometimes end up taking a lot MORE time when one is busier than ever!
So...…….little harm done, and not too bad a mess to clean up, and now I "get to" decide on how to re-decorate the basement bathroom, guest room, and rec room, and the deck on the main floor level! The deck definitely will be my favorite part of that job! I'm not high on re-decorating rooms. I want it to be once, and done! Inside the house! That is why we have paneling and no painted or papered walls!
I do want the guys to put in a berm or concrete 'sea-wall' so the creek can't come inside again! Don't want to take a chance it will be another 27 years before another flood!!! We could put a sump-pump inside a 20' wide x 3' hi wall and end the problem...…..we shall see! We also have some deep ruts in the mud it is going to be a while to smooth out and get some grass growing on again. Our 'lawn' has always been just pasture grasses, nothing fancy, tho I did foolishly put down a very small, but nice, sod lawn once. Such hard work! and the native grasses pretty well took it over in a few years. Not enough water, back then. We do have rural water now, and some fairly nice shade trees, so it will do fine for a couple at ages 79 and 83 in July.
We are sure there will be lots of fences in the pastures to repair, let alone creek crossings washed out. Fortunately, our corrals stayed upright, but probably have some weak places and maybe a post or two gone and lots of trash to pull out of the wire( looks like very heavy woven wire panels) strange that I don't know what it is called!!!
Sorry to sound so negative! This, too, shall pass. And probably ultimately be the source of a few jokes...….someday!
mrj
