The prairies and other parts of North America with a heavy snow pack are hoping for a slow melt and gearing up for a fast melt and high water in places that don't need it. Not to be outdone, we had our own home grown flood today.
Last year in May we installed a small pressure system to help out when we water our garden and the pressure in the town water system is so low it was painful. It was located in the passageway to our outbuilding (which Tanya uses as a greenhouse until I get one for her). It sits there unplugged but still hooked to the water line, until we need it to water the garden. This morning about 10:30 a seal broke between the pump and the electric motor and water sprayed into the passage way, flooding almost all of Tanya's plants, beating them flat. I heard the water running and opened the door to the passage way. Water flooded into the pantry and kitchen.
The water line from the street enters the house into a four foot deep sump beside the pump. It was full of water. The shut off valve was at the bottom of the pit (don't even think about asking) but I couldn't reach it, couldn't find it and the water was ice cold. First we got the plants out of harms way. Tanya grabbed a couple of neighbours working in the garden across the road from us (not Lucia and Zhenia to whom she is not speaking at the moment) who came and helped. I got the hose from the pump dragged outside and turned on to relieve the pressure. The neighbour threw wet towels over the leak and somehow figured out how to turn off the tap deep in the sump hole.
By 1:00 we had the passage way cleaned up and the kitchen mopped up. The water was 1/2" deep in places in the kitchen but didn't run into the livingroom at all. Pouring level concrete floors is not a priority in housing construction, I guess. I am thankful.
Tanya was sick about her plants but she poured the water off them and did what she could. The soil here doesn't drain well being heavy clay but she had mixed it with sand and well rotted manure so we hope the little seedlings will not be too water logged. She has a heater going full blast and a window open to circulate air. The (150??) tomatoes which seemed to have taken the worst beating were standing nice and tall again tonight so we'll see. Her little petunias were doing so good and now this. Do petunias survive wet feet?
I don't know if this blog will get posted or not as my internet connection has been acting up for two days now. I am back on Internet Explorer which works a liitle bit, off and on. Firefox did not work at all. Some people's blogs I can open, others I cannot. I cannot get my mail on Outlook but will try on line. Skype says I am on line and tells me who else is on line but I cannot call anyone. I tried the modem on my laptop with the same results so it may be the modem. Tanya has the same ISP but a different modem and has had no trouble.
So sorry to hear of your flood! Very high nuisance value. I hope the crop has not been wiped out, the house can be dried before the mold sets in, and the pump can be fixed.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely did not need any of this.
Besides, it won't do anything for your dry sense of humour.
Oh dear! I hope the plants survive.
ReplyDeleteThe plants are looking not bad today. She may lose a few but most will make it.
ReplyDeleteRB, I expect the pump can be fixed. The house is already dry. Our socks were dampened but not our spirits.
Firefox did not work at all
ReplyDeleteUsed Firefox for awhile, but after uploading an update the other week, it started acting up. Downloaded the latest version and it still was acting up(would freeze up on some sites or shut down), so I deleted it and went back to IE.
Glad the flood is getting dried up and I hope the plants recover. It is a good thing that didn't happen when you were away from home.
ReplyDeleteLike D.C. Power said. I hope you're relocating the shutoff valve to where it can be reached quickly. If you relocate it, you'll probably never have another flood. But if you don't, better have some waders handy. ;)
ReplyDeleteRe: Firefox. About a year ago, I had to start clearing out the cache and error log frequently. FF has always had a memory-leak problem, and updates to make it less prone to hacker mischief seem to have aggravated the problem. I do find the new version 4.0 much faster and less prone to the memory problem, but it's still there.
Sometimes, stalls and freeze-ups are caused by the server you're going to or one along the way, not the browser.
To clear the cache in FF, on the top menu bar go to:
Tools-->Options-->Network tab-->click "Clear Now"
For the error log, it's Tools-->Options-->Error Console-->click "Clear Now"
Hope this is of some help.