Mud

I've been working at a house that has had some flooding.   Today, it rained and we hoped the changes we'd made would have stopped the water from coming in.   Unfortunately, we weren't that lucky.  However, we know more now than we've known before and there is good news in that while water is still coming in, it's only in the crawl space and is pumped out for us by the new sump pump. 

So good news, bad news kind of thing.   There were some tweaks though which involved me getting muddier than I likely have since I was a child.  When we realized there was water coming into the crawl space, I climbed in to, "assess the situation" as my father always says. 

Prior to today, we weren't able to see where the water was coming from.   Today, we discovered it was coming from underground sources, appearing through small openings in the walls of red brick mud behind the black plastic moisture barrier.  

It was interesting to see—water appearing out of nowhere, feet underground, trickling out of a solid wall of earth.   There were several spots, but again on the good news front, all but one was heading towards the low point where the sump pump was ready and waiting to send the water outside and away from the house. 

I got to do some digging, which was fun at first but fun things never last and it soon became a chore I wanted to finish.   Fortunately, I only had to dig a two-inch trench for a short distance, which shouldn't have been anything to complain about except the clay wasn't cooperating. 

I climbed over into the really wet zone to verify everything was all going to drainage plan and managed in the process to get exceptionally dirty.  After that, I climbed all around the perimeter of the crawl space to confirm that no water was coming from surface level.   I left a mud hand trail behind me that, had the substance been blood, would have fit right in with any horror movie. 

At the end of the crawlspace adventure, I got to do something interesting.   My husband gave me a bag and I got out of all of my clothes.   I had to hose water over my boots to get the zippers to unzip they were in such a state.   Clothes in the bag, I donned my extra tall, spare rainboots I brought for outside work, added on my raincoat, and wrapped a bath towel around my waist.   I headed to the car and looked like I wasn't nearly naked in case anyone was watching. 

I think I pulled it off 

The Big Boy, Tiny Girl We Missed You Comments:  Edna came to the house to clean today.   She hasn't been here for a while, since she got the diagnosis of breast cancer.   She said she wanted to come because she needed to feel normal and felt like everything was normal at our house.  She has spent too much time at home, worrying about what will happen with the surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.   It's a small mass and she has a very good outlook, but it's still scary.   The children came in from school with their masks still on (common these days) and we all did the remote hello's and we missed you comments.  I've told the children all about her situation and they understand it's serious but treatable.  My daughter did ask Edna though, "are you going to lose your boob?"    Edna laughed and told her no, it was just the removal of a part of her, "boob."