"A River Runs Through It"

You might think this story is about a book. There's no book in this story, no movie with Brad Pitt catching fish. This is a story about water and where it doesn't belong! Three weeks ago I really enjoyed the 66 degree weather until I got up the next morning and found a river running through my house. I have lived in my home 17 years and never once had a smidgen of water in the basement. So I was a little distressed when Glade frantically told me it was filling up with water.

The crazy part was it just wouldn't stop coming in. It wasn't long before the entire thing was a wadding pool. Thankfully it made it's way over to my drain next to the water heater. Seeing all that water pour down the drain made me sick all over.

Lots of my kids came to help. Seth, of course is always first on the scene. He drug all of my wet carpet pieces out the window and helped me move everything that was getting wet. He began shop vaccing, trying to suck the water up. He probably hauled two hundred gallons of water out the window until his back was hurting so bad we started dumping it down the drain. I know what you're thinking, "Why didn't we do that in the first place?" We are basically slow minded people, we like to do things the hard way first. I got on the phone and borrowed more shop vacs and soon Des, Goose, Emy, Kyle and Kadie were over to my house doing the same. As fast as we hauled it out more water just poured right back in.

Cute Stephenie who came all the way from Alaska to stay with us even got in on the action. I felt so bad, here we had a fun shopping excursion planned and instead we were sucking water non stop. She was a good sport though and pitched right in and helped.

Sucking water up and just having it come right back in a split second is futile.

Like I said, I'm a slow learner and after two days of shop vaccing I decided to stop and just go with the flow. Oh it was a painful decision to allow the water to just move on out of my house at a snails pace down the drain, but sucking all that water was just a waste of everyone's energy.

Human nature is a funny thing. Every person who walked in my basement could not resist the urge to pick up a shop vac and suck water thinking they could get it to leave. After any individual had sucked and dumped about 15 gallons of water, only to see it come right back again, the urge would leave them. I finally had to just stop people from going down the stairs to look. I had to laugh though, my grandkids had an entirely different take on the situation. To bad adults have to loose that fun loving optimistic perspective. Spencer was so excited when he saw the water. He was, like, "Grandma can we wade in your pool?" You should have seen the faces of all the other kids when they thought I had a pool in my basement. They all thought the water in my basement was better than a Happy Meal at McDonalds! For about five minutes I was the coolest grandma ever. They thought I had put the water there for fun. You should have seen the disappoint on their sad drawn out faces when not a single adult would allow them to go downstairs and romp in it. My grandkids are not stupid by any means though, it didn't take them five seconds to figure out that in order to get in the water you had to look like you were working in it. No problem! I've never seen kids so eager to help in my life. They scavenged up every squeegee they could find to look like they were moving the water to the drain. Ali was so excited she ask me if she could take her shoes off. I should have just told them all to bring their swim suits! I think come summer I'll just bring the hose in and flood the basement on purpose. Wouldn't my grandkids think that was a kick? Despite the grandkids glee however, the part that just drove me nutty was seeing water in my pantry. My pantry is finished and it pained me to see my painted walls just soaking up water.

Thankfully Chad came to the rescue again. I love my brother whom I acquired by marriage. I can always count on him for help. We decided to improve the french drain around our house so Chad brought over his backhoe. What a muddy mess. As you can see Seth is still on the forefront helping us and thankfully Gage came over to get in on the action too.

It's a good thing I have boys who are willing to help!



Chad made the mistake of showing Glade how to work the backhoe.


It's true, the only difference between men and boys is the size of their toys!
No Glade, I'm not buying you a backhoe for your birthday!

I must end this story by telling you after four agonizing days of water in my basement Scott Kohler came over and saved the day. Scott also got the privileged of sucking water out of his basement. . . his brand new basement that is finished with nice painted walls, pretty beds, cushy furniture, and plush carpet. He had to move everything, rip up all that carpet along with the pad and haul it all out of his house. I can't even imagine the work not to mention the disruption. He sucked 900 gallons of water alone just out of his pad. His saga with a nasty water filled basement beats my little puny story hands down. I'm just so glad I ran into him at McKalls wedding. He came over late that night and showed Glade the most remarkable trick to solving the problem for good. You'll have to see me in person to get the scoop on that little trick. After applying his notorius secret handed down to him by his grandpa, the water was gone in two hours. Now all you can hear in my basement is the fans blowing. I wanted to kiss him when I saw the last drop roll down the drain. I called Becci the next day and told her, "I'm in love with your husband." She said I could keep him. I told her one husband is too many and that I would just carry my secret love for him to my grave! Thanks Scott for being a super hero at our house and saving the day! A double thanks to Chad and my kids that all came over and worked so hard to help! Thankfully the river is gone and I appreciate all those who came to the rescue!