Here's a little story about my weekend of crafting and throughly enjoying myself while my husband was out of town.
I got home on Friday (early from work) and the outside stove was overheating. It does this when the blower isn't working in the house because the water doesn't cool down and it gets too hot in the stove. So, I was going to go in our crawl space to trip the switch so it works. Much to my dismay, the crawl space had become a mini swimming pool of sorts. Needless to say, this wasn't in the plans when we built the house.
Jen and I began to bail out water. I was apprehensive to tripping the outlet sitting in a swimming pool. They put warnings on dryers for a reason. Anyway, we bailed water (roughly 40 gallons or so) then Jen had to go to work. Elizabeth came to aid me in this lovely (remember crafty) endeavor. We bailed water and more water. Randy came to help and we hooked up a sump pump until that overheated and quit, then we began using the shop vac. We bailed and bailed until I gave up at 8PM. I was cold, wet, and stinky. I wanted heat in the house. So after having my possible last meal of Poor Gary's Pizza and muttering my last words ("Tell Shawn to put in a sump pump") the decision was that if I was electorcuted the smell would be better than the smell we were getting nauseaus from. I ventured to the crawl space, crawling through very smelly water, and sitting in a pile of water (I had on rubber boots, but it's a "crawl" space so doesn't do any good) I hit the switch and voila, the blower worked and we began to get heat in the house.
The next morning, I started it all over again. We bailed water and more water. I was under the house and didn't see where any water lines were broken, the sewer wasn't coming in, and there was no problem that I could tell. We figured it was because we had a lot of snow and it all melted quickly and it rained all day on Friday. We haven't had a flooded crawl space before. I talked to Shawn and he didn't know (it's sometimes hard to say what the problem is when you are in another state). Anyway, the saga continued and my crafting was trying to figure out the best way to get water out of the crawl space without breaking my back any more than I already had. By Sunday night, the guestimate was 500+ gallons of very smelly water being emptied and more coming in as quickly as I could empty it. My house had a little robot (the shop vac) in the front door, with a long protruding apparatus so I could drain the water down the steps and away from the house. Being as it rained on Sunday, I took an old shower curtain and hung it for a door. The shower curtain was my "beacon of hope" near by ever increasing ocean of a crawl space (it was perfect fit, a lighthouse shower curtain). Anyway, Sunday night Shawn says it has to be sewer water coming in, but I just couldn't figure out how that could be. Well, he figured it out. We have the pump for our sewer plugged in behind the house. It has one of those nifty little switches that you have to reset. So why don't I check that out. I wander outside and sure enough, the little red light is on. I tripped it back, and called him. He marveled at how that could of happened. I remind him that the fencer is plugged in there also. A light bulb goes on, the extension cord plugs into the fencer and being as it is spring, it is likely in water, shorting it out and tripping the switch. I unplugged the fencer (at this point I don't care if the horses get out, they haven't yet and there hasn't been an electric fence, just me thinking there was) so Voila (500+ gallons of water, an aching body, and how many hours later) the problem has been identified and is fixed. I continued to suck water out of the crawl space and we will have to for some time, but at least there isn't more water coming in.
Here's where the problem lied, the pump wasn't working for the sewer, and therefore, our drain tile (which goes into the sewer) wasn't working and the liquid had no where to go, but my crawl space. I missed work on Monday to bail out more water, but needed 2 people to do the job completely so, I sucked out water when I could and I took it easy. I did a lot of scrapbooking between suctioning and finished many pages. Over the weekend, I did some scrapbooking and finished half a knit dishrag. I usually do half of one per day if not more.
So, my crafting was different then I thought it would be, but the experience is something I learned from and wouldn't really need to have happen again. I've been waking up several times per night and run to the crawl space to see if more water has come in and I'm not sure if I really run out in my sleep or only think about it to check the switch. The positive part is that Shawn is home and he can take care of it now.
How was everyone else's weekend?
15 comments:
i can't wait to see if her co-workers tell her how smelly she is - i think it got into her pores. ewww! -e.
I certainly was hoping that she
washed her hands before she touched any food. I remember one
of the Randall kids getting sick
at Silver Lake in Virginia after
feeding ducks or geese (never can
tell those apart)and dropped what
ever they were feeding on the ground and picking it up again to
feed to the birds. As kids do, hands had gone to mouth, result,
very ill.
Yes, I washed my hands so much so that they are dried out and cracked. I also put on a lot of antibacterial lotion. I do think that the smell is permanently embedded in my nostrils. I smell it all day long and I've taken several showers. So far, no one has made a comment to my stench but I'm well aware that they may be reluctant to do so because they would see it as impolite. Heather
OH MY GOODNESS!!!! So any complaints I had about ripping a bathroom apart because I had a 12 year lake under it can be be put to rest. That was nothing. Kids are yelling ... pasti is done and ready to eat ... just heard hubby pull up as well.
who wrote that about having the 12 year lake?
that was me with the "at least" 12 year long lake under the bathtub ... at least until we discovered it!
-anita
wow .. i guess all i can utter is *sympathy* to my dearest heather.. i can only imagine how that would've gone. hey! if i had been there i definetly would've helped you.
--Blayde
Never fails when the men are away somethings happens. Sorry that your weekend did not go as planned.
Tell Shawn that since you did not get your alone crafting time as planned that he needs to give you a "rain check" (no pun intended) weekend.
Thats the kind of weekend that makes you ready for monday eh?
-charlie
Ugh! Charlie hit the nail on the head... Sometimes going to work is much easier than being home! Did you have anything stored in the crawl space? -b
I did have stuff stored in the crawl space. Most of it is in rubbermaid containers, so I'm hoping that it will be okay. Some of the other items, I threw away because the smell would likely never leave them. For instance, a wood ice cream maker. I don't think that I would ever eat ice cream out of that thing anyway, just the thought would make me ill. --Heather
YUMmmmmmm sounds like fun!!!! Look mom... a swimming pool.. LOL..... thats what my kids would have said years ago..... Best way to clean your finger nails after that is ..make bread.... LOL Yummmmm... Have a great day H....
That bread making comment reminded
me of: Peter Nordstrom and Sukki
(sp?) Kujala were visiting in New
Finland area of Canada. Lady of the house had warm bread waiting to
be eaten with the meal. Men said it smells sooo good. Then she changed her baby's messy diaper and
didn't wash her hands. They didn't
eat the bread. Lady wondered why!
its cooked right???
who hasn't had bread in that long a time that it qualifies for edible as long as "it is cooked".
-a
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