Flood in late July

We took a long weekend in late July and were in Wisconsin during 4 days of lots of rain.

Water in the seasonal creek - we were so happy to have our new culvert!

We had spent two days (Thurs and Fri) cleaning out the root cellar of the old farmhouse. On Saturday, Bill was planning on installing a sump-pump and a dehumidifier. Mother Nature had a different plan. It rained about 5" on Friday night - after two days of multiple inches) and the watershed off of the back bluff/hillside behind the farmhouse shed water straight off the hill and right into the root cellar. We think the water was up 5' and flowing out the root cellar window.

Bill surveying the amount of water and how to engineer our way out of this one...

Ick. This is the root cellar. You can see the window in the back that water flowed out. An old water heater (round object in the foreground), a non-working furnace on the right back, and our brand new pressure tank (blue floating object). This is about 18" of water.

During this trip, I also started on the kitchen demolition. This photo shows the kitchen in the old farmhouse before it met me.

After me. I pulled out all of the cabinets, the sink and the paneling and fake walls.

And look at this. Terribly ugly paneling. I pulled it off and ....

Oh my - there is a door! This is the original front door of the farmhouse. We are going to salvage it and use it as an interior door in the new house.

This next photo is for my sister-in-law S.M., the cat lady.

The Symphony of Rain

We are in Wisconsin at our old church/home for an extended weekend or mini -vacation (Tues night thru Sun morning).

We arrived tonight at about 8:45 p.m.

We were sitting outside enjoying a New Glarus Organic Revolution (best name ever or what? and check out the cool illustration on the label!).

Anyway, I was sitting outside as darkness moved in and the wind picked up. I said to Bill, "feels like rain."

It began to rain. Bill chose to go inside. I like to sit in the rain so I stayed on my bench near my weed filled (not as bad as last time) garden. I discovered the Symphony of Rain.

This is what I heard:

Raindrops hit the leaves of the sunchokes growing in my garden
Rain gurgle down the gutter behind me
Raindrops splat on the compostable mulch I have on the onion bed
Raindrops pummel the corn stalks across the road
Rain on the road sprattle up from car tires as they drove past
Raindrops making the slightest hush as it fell on the prairie plants

The world is alive with music; we just need to stop and listen to it.

I am so glad to be here. We are going to work at the farm and try to get in some relaxation too.

(p.s. I don't think sprattle is a word, but I think it accurately describes the sound.)