split open and melt

thank goodness for floods.  there’s nothing like a good flood to get me out of a funk, which is where i’ve been for the last two days: funkytown.  and i may have stayed longer if it wasn’t for the copious quantities of water falling from the sky all last night.  right onto the ice sloping toward the basement door.  sliding right under that door, filling the entire 1600 sqaure feet of basement with 3″ of water.  this is discovered by little man this very morning.  went from, “mom i’m bring up wood”, to “hey mom, look!!!  the basement’s full of water!!” in an instant.  “what??” i’m wondering.  sure enough, it’s awash.  we keep our wood down there, and it serves as a cellar/pantry, as well as a space for recyclables, and boxes of assorted sized children’s clothing.  cement floor.  completely open, partitioned by ‘walls’ of stud frames, which one can squeeze between easily to pass through. cinder block walls. no drain/pump.  3″ water.  hmm.

time for galoshes and brooms.  splish splosh splash.  mama duck and four  ducklings begin brooming the waves out the door.  sweeeesh, some backwashes in.  boats float by, filled with little sailors, ahoy there! they call out, as we give them a big wave to ride.  swassssh.  little man is biking through the beach.  tenderfoot scooters past, stormy and little bird are jumping over waves, i put away the broom.  an hour later we are done playing with the water. it’s diminished barely perceptibly.

upstairs we’re cutting paper rectangles to use for an electricity game.   knock knock.  who’s there?  iron john.  oh hello!  our neighbour has stopped by to bring us paint jar holder’s that i had asked him to make.  we bought the forstner bit that he needed for his drill press to cut out the circles, and here they are:  just lovely.  he’s even polished the warm cherry wood.  he looks over a pencil holder drawing with me then asks, “so how’s your basement?”  funny you should ask, it’s flooded.  hmm, can i see?  sure.  down we all go.  well, he says, i have a pump but this isn’t enough water for it.  do you have a vaccuum?  nope.  well i have a shop vac i can bring over and we’ll get it cleaned right up.  for real?  asks little man.  you bet.  he goes and comes and we all take turns swooooshing water up the tube.  little man has found it’ll suck up anything, so wood chips, bark, and bird seed gets cleaned up.  he brings peanuts to see if it’ll suck those.  yep.  how about marbles?  absolutely.  so marbles get sucked too, and when the water is emptied into a bucket for removal, he’s right there catching the marble.  we also learned how water flows to the low point and that if the vaccuum is held in place, the water actually moves toward it!  another wonder:  there’s a drain outside the basement door!!  iron john spotted the metal lid on it and asked, what’s that??  i don’t know.  little man chirps up, i’ll get an adustable wrench.  off he goes.  indeed, it comes of to reveal the hole in the ground.  so we make a screen to cover it up, and tenderfoot broom sweeps water to the drain, watching to see what goes in, what doesn’t.  fascinating stuff.

four hours later we’re done and the basements been spring cleaned :0)  thank you iron john.  a walk to his place with eggs, butternut squash, cookies, and a picture is forthcoming this weekend.  the rest of the day was gorgeous.  sun shining, golden, waaaarrrrrrmmm!!  we played by the creek and i even snuck in a blackberry cane pruning.  this was a blissful day.  did you know floods could be so amazing?