Ms. Fix-It and the Mystery of the Leaky Basement

Well, we made it through another week of winter. But this time the week passed by without Jon coming home.

He's working in Iowa right now, by Osage. Jon had almost made it home to us (he'd gotten as far as Durand) when the call came from his boss. There'd been an ice storm in another part of the state, and they were looking for volunteers to do power line repair.

Weekend work pays more, so it was hard to turn down the chance to earn extra money. Still, it was disappointing not to see Jon pull into the driveway as he usually does.

Leila kept looking out the door, waiting for a pair of headlights that never came (doesn't that sound sad??).

On the bright side, we had visitors earlier in the week. Mom and Dad were over.

They had just gone to Sam's Club so brought along a few extra "supplies"-- including a box of 176 diapers for Leila.

Good thing, too. So far she hasn't expressed any interest in using her new Christmas potty as anything other than a stepping stool. (I haven't been pushing it, though, either. Plenty of time for that-!).

While Mom and Dad were over I pointed out a pile of towels spread around the bottom or our basement stairs. For several days, water had been seeping down one of our basement walls; so slowly you couldn't see the trickle, but enough to keep the carpet persistently damp in one spot.

We've experienced a similar problem in the past, but not in that spot. Ice dams build up along the eaves of our roof, and as the snow starts melting there are run-off problems.

It was discouraging to see a leak in this new spot because Jon had already made an effort to address the problem. He's been keeping the roof shovelled off and chipped the ice away from the eaves. He'd also changed some of the drainage paths around our lawn, hoping to better prevent water from pooling against the foundation.

But here was water in the basement, yet again. We discussed the problem over the phone and were both resigned to coming up with another (more expensive) fix in the spring.

Well! Imagine my surprise the next day when Emma took me outside to see a "giant icicle" she'd discovered (the photo at right).

Emma was fascinated by the long, thick ice formations that had built up around our garden hose, along one side of the deck. What she didn't notice was water still sputtering and spraying out of the hose.

Curiously enough, the giant icicle Emma showed me was directly above the new leaky spot in our basement. I shut the hose off tight, and the water in our basement disappeared (with the help of lots of towels, a shop vac, and a fan pointed down at the floor).

Now you could look at the above story in several ways.

You could speculate about how long the water was left on... and cringe. You could find ways to assign blame (Who left the hose on? Why wasn't the hose turned off for the winter?). You could tally up damage (should the carpet be replaced?). You could start worrying about the future (what if toxic mold forms in our basement and we all develop allergies and lung problems?).

Or you could simply congratulate yourself for solving the problem and move on. I think I'll go with that one.

Big High 5 to me-!

The rest of the week was warm and wet. We had melty days, but no return of water to the basement.

On Friday we got a heavy layer of snow. It was the wet, packy kind-- perfect for a snowman. So Emma made a little buddy for the other snowman in our yard. The big snowman has been here since Christmas Day... we built it while Susan and David were here.

Cute, huh?

Over the weekend Michael had a basketball tournament and Emma had a friend over. Since Jon didn't make it home, the kids helped me do his chores... things like piling up firewood and shoveling the sidewalk and driveway. Emma hauled a small bale of hay home from the neighbor's farm, and we changed the bedding in the chicken coop.

Hope everyone's well; take care!!