Rain, Rain, Go AWAY!!

The rain started in about 7:30 tonight-or should I say Monday night-since it's already just after midnight on Tuesday. It wasn't too heavy right away but then it started and kept on and on and I thought I better check the window well in the boys room!!! There was a little water but not bad. I checked again a few minutes later and it was creeping up fast. I called Bruce (who will now be traveling back from Fargo early this morning) and asked him what I should do?? He said you've got to get out there and do something or we'll get water in the basement. There was much thunder and lightning going on at this time but I ventured out and was soaked in a minute.

I grabbed a bucket and started scooping out water and saw that water was on the ledge inside the boys' room and yelled through the window to Aleah and Donovan (Gerrit is at Bible camp and thankfully Samantha was sound asleep) to get towels and I was scooping out water like a person possessed but water was still pouring in and I had to find a way to get the water away. I went back in the house and called Bruce and he said you need to get more dirt. I headed for the sandbox and was doing whatever I could and scooping water and I was getting nowhere.

I ran inside and called Barb and asked if Jason could come over and help and she said he's on his way. I ran back out and did more of the same and there was a lake in front of the window but I did seem to be getting the water down a bit in the window well and it wasn't pouring in as fast. It took Jason about a half hour to get to our house-it usually takes 15 minutes tops but a lot of roads were closed.

I was happy to see another adult! First we tried putting sand over by the north side of the well but we found it's was like a sink hole. He thought it best that we dig a trench to get the water to drain away from the house and I was thinking the same thing so we started on that and the rain was finally letting up some. That seemed to do the job plus we put a cover on over the window well. Thank you so much Jason! I'm not sure what would have happened if you wouldn't have been here to help. I wasn't too much help digging the trenches because I was really tired from scooping out so much water.

Bruce will be starting back from Fargo in a few hours and he'll be doing what he can so this doesn't happen again. The forecast calls for chances of storms all week and the ground is already so saturated. This would have to happen when Bruce is out of town. He had planned to be gone all week but it's more important to take care of the house at times like these. Our rain gauge showed three and a half inches of rain and the news said some parts of Bismarck/Mandan got six to seven inches. I don't want to know how much damage that would have done. I don't think we got any damage. Aleah and Donovan got the water soaked up fast-now I'm washing towels.

I think the adrenaline is wearing off and I need to take some Motrin because my back is really hurting. I don't foresee any baseball or tennis in the morning since things will be too wet and I'm not going to wake Donovan up early anyway when it was close to midnight when he and Aleah got to bed. I'll have to take some pictures of the destruction Jason and I did to the yard in the morning.