A Moderate Crisis

Nothing says CHRISTMAS TIME like a "Moderate Crisis" ....

On Tuesday the children and I went out to rake and blow MORE leaves, and then planned to burn them. We spent several hours gathering leaves, and creating safe barriers.

I asked Cherub2 to attach the hose to the exterior faucet and bring the end to the leaf pile, then turn it on. It's always good to have water readily available JUST IN CASE.

We raked some more (about 30-45 minutes more) ... and at some point Cherub2 came back into the house, and was headed back outside to the back yard (where we were working) ... she came through the basement (which is a NO NO because DadToCherubs works nights and was sleeping !) ....

Well, she came running outside yelling THERE'S WATER EVERYWHERE IN THE BASEMENT !!!

Thankfully, I had not started the fire yet. YEAH !! I ran inside to find 2-3" of water covering the floor in DadToCherub's office, our school room, our bedroom, my craft area, and the entire garage. The supply pipe to the exterior faucet had broken INSIDE the wall and water was gushing into the basement. And there was NO shut-off valve !! SO we had to cut the power so the well-pump would stop "pumping".

A neighbor brought a wet vac and helped empty things out, and capped the supply pipe so the water would stop gushing, and so we could turn the power back on to get to work .... and a another friend promised to send a wet vac too. And SURPRISE - she also sent her oldest daughter (18yo) to help. YEAH !!! THANK YOU !!! SO the army was formed ... 4 adults, and 4 capable children (plus 2 younger children whose job it was to play together quietly outside in the yard.).

So we set to work ... furniture in the driveway, "at risk" belongings upstairs .... wet vacs going, along with lots of brooms sweeping water and even the leaf blower "blowing" water out. We pulled up the carpet in 2 rooms .... fans and a dehumidifier.

DadToCherubs does web work for a carpet place in town - so we replaced the ruined carpet and got everything cleaned up and put back together. We even cleaned some un-needed junk out as well.

So - the only things that were ruined were a few children's "twaddle" books, and a laptop (YIKES).

And we were exhausted and were all in bed at 8p, sleeping VERY soundly. Boy Oh Boy were we sore too !!

Life at the holidays is stressful enough without a crisis ... but it could have been SO much worse. We are thankful that it was only a "moderate" crisis.

Sidenote: On Thursday, we finally got most of the leaves burned. One more project finished.