Trial by Water

Having grown up in a river town, Monterey on the Kentucky, I am well used to Trial by Water, as I have been involved in quite a few floods.  But when I moved out of town, to a ridge well above the flood plain, I had the deluded idea that my water worries were over...NOT!
Going back a while, the very first disaster I had at my new abode was the cistern wall cracking and releasing 10,000 gallons of water into my basement; this was before I even got moved in! It has been like that ever since. Fighting water battles. Too much of the stuff, or not enough. If I can find it, I will re-run an old Window's Live blog of the Cistern Woes. What a nightmare that was. Leaky cisterns are not fun. You never have any water and rain is your only friend.(thank God and Peaks Mill we finally got water lines; it only took 25 years!).  But when your basement also leaks, rain in torrential amounts can also be the enemy.

Now, with the gutters coming in on the side of the leaky basement, I am out numbered!  We are experiencing a monsoon here in Kentucky at the moment. We have been way behind in rainfall for several months and now, we are trying to make up for it in one weekend.

I don't know if the photos show it, but there is a solid wall of water coming down. That is what it looked like from my upstairs porch.

The guttering is fast pulling away from the "long" side of the house, and as a result, the water is pouring down onto the ground as if from a faucet! And from there, it is finding its way into my basement through the garage. Oh the Joy...

If you look closely, you can see the water running out of the gutter. The gutter is coming off at the corner.

So, doing my Rube Goldberg impersonation, I jury-rigged this amazing gutter-funnel invention. It is a piece of old tin roofing bent into a 90 degree angle, a round tray, a plastic trash can lid, a photo developing tray and the metal slide from my dog door. Its not doing a perfect job, but it is helping. Meanwhile, I dug a small trench from the place where the water is running into the garage out to where the land starts to fall away hoping to divert the worst of the run off. That hose is attached to a sump pump in the basement so I can pump out the water that got past my efforts.

Yee-Ha...We're havin' fun now!

So...tonight, I am going to a birthday party down on the river. It may turn into a "move all our river rat friends out of their houses" party. Have duck boots, will travel. But, which ever it turns out to be, we will have fun, because that is the only option with this crowd. 

Life hands you lemons, make lemonade. I'm just sayin'....