The Deluge 2.0

In the part of the world I live in, you expect a certain amount of rain in the spring. It’s a big part of what stimulates the trees to blossom and the grass to grow.
But as I sit here writing this we are firmly ensconced in the second huge rainstorm of this season. The first storm, a week ago saturated the ground and forced the water down and through the bottom of my basement walls.
Which was, as you can imagine, a total pain in the ass.
Yesterday, as second rain storm began and will continue doing the same thing to the ground, I have done a few things that will hopefully prevent this seepage from happening again.
Parging, or waterproofing this wall is a big deal. It will cost us a lot of money and will take some time to get done because we are far from the only people experiencing this problem
The first guy who came to estimate the job took 5 phone calls, just while he was talking to me. That’s insane.
My advantage is that I know how the water is leaking in and when he saw that, he advised me to sandbag that area to slow the seeping down.
This is something I have never had to do before in my life and I have owned 6 different houses.
So I thought about how I would do it and went over to my local Home Hardware to see if I could get some sand and heavy duty garbage bags.

A Little League Eureka Moment

As I was looking through the garden supplies I noticed a pile of black top soil. I hefted one of the bags and that’s when I did that I got an idea. So I bought three bags of this top soil and loaded it in my car. Then I went to the dollar store in the same plaza and bought some elastic bands.
When I got home I dumped about 10 scoops of the topsoil into my regular garbage bags, molded them into little tubes and rolled them up like you’d roll a big joint.
I laid 10 of these little 3 inch diameter sausages of top soil along the edge of my deck on the sunken cement slab where the water was seeping down into the ground right next to the foundation.
They molded beautifully and the best part is that when I am done using them, I can just sprinkle it all on the gardens and the lawn.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

It’s been more than 24 hours since the rain started and so far my little dam has been pretty effective. (knock on wood).
Everybody I have talked to recently about this rain tells me that there hasn’t been rain like this in their memory. And I believe them. This is rich fertile fruit growing land and its success depends on the right balance of rainfall and sunshine.
But I somehow get the feeling that this balance is drifting out of whack. And it may very well be a symptom of climate change. Or it could just be freaky weather. Who can say?
All I know for sure is that defending my house against the ravages of Mother Nature is something I never thought I would have to do. But I’m afraid it’s something we are all going to have to get used to.

The Deluge Survival Kit

Left To Right: A couple of early scoopers. Bags of top soil keeping the water at bay. My water holder and the dolly that I transport water to the front driveway for dumping. The water scooper. Smartest 20 bucks have spent in a long time. Cuts the workload in half. In back: a couple of brooms to sweep the deck and keep water from seeping down the wall. Cycle: Every 2-4 hours depending on the intensity of the rainfall.

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