Friday, July 29, 2011 :: Who started this rumor??

People have been telling me, "Looks like the water is receding." Which makes me want to stop and look around and go, "Really?? Because I hadn't noticed a whole lot of that."

Now, to be fair, yes, the water level has went down a little. But honestly, that's like saying an inch of water evaporated out of an olympic sized swimming pool. To prove my point, I took some photos today... (click on any of them to see them larger)

Here's the panoramic view from the top of the levee a mile west of us.

This is a mile west of our house, on the west side of the west levee. You can see the water is starting to eat the side of the levee away. Although it would have to eat quite a bit to break all the way through, you never like to see your levees doing this.

Continue on down the road about another mile and our neighbor's NObama sign has literally floated down the river. Sorry Kelsey. You know I would have saved it for you if I could have.

Continue west about another half a mile and the highway has completely washed out, indicated by the roaring rapids through here.

Also, this pivot is in serious trouble as it appears the ground underneath it has started to wash away. We are wondering if the other end of this pivot has washed up against the poles down there and toppled them over, along with the lines. When I was down there, I thought it had, but I can't seem to prove it from any of my photos.

This one (also down that direction) is one of our neighbors' homes. It looks as though all of his bushes are going to die around his house. That just stinks, ya know? And I know he's already lost a couple of trees, too. You can buy new possessions, but you can't just go out and buy a new 30 foot tall tree or established bushes.

Come back to our house and head south about a quarter mile, and this is what you will see. Actually, we do own this field (and for as far as you can see), and although it looks like dead stalks laying on the ground in the foreground, it is in fact a mat of dead stalks floating in about a foot or two of water.

Continue south of us about another mile and you will find this:

And this--we own this field, too, what is to the right of the gravel road...you know, the gravel road you can't see because it is covered with water.

Now, if you come back and travel straight east of us about a mile, you will see these fields. Again, anything brown is dead corn standing in water.

...and this...

Go back to our house, and here's what's going on there...
First, the deer are feasting on our poor little apple trees, or at least the bottom half of them. We have four of these trees--I hope they survive...and if I catch any deer out there munching away...well, let's just say it won't be pretty.

In other "wildlife" news, apparently massive hoards of flies accompany floodwater or something. I've resorted to hanging fly-strips in the garage....and if I could remember where I put the rest of the box of fly-strips, I would hang a couple in my kitchen. So if you come visit me, don't judge me for the nasty fly-strips hanging in my kitchen....or the couch and deep-freeze out on the front porch. KIDDING. Just kidding, people. (...about the couch and deep-freeze, not about the fly-strips in my kitchen)

But speaking of my deep-freeze, the guys moved it from town back into the garage today. YEAH! (I can't tell you how inconvenient it is to drive to town just to get into your deep freeze.) I did take the "opportunity" to defrost it and get it all organized and sorted through...even if it doesn't look like it from this photo....

 And last but not least, although I am making progress on the unloading of boxes part, the sunroom still looks like this. <sigh> At least the boxes are sorted out into rows, with each row containing items that go in a certain place in the house. So if I'm looking for a book that went on the tall bookcase in the school room, I at least know where to start looking.

So, what do you think? Is the water receding? Maybe, but not enough. And it does sound like the Corps has a schedule to start reducing releases, but that won't start for a while yet. But I'll save that tasty bit of information for another time. All I'll post right now is this quote from the Corps' facebook page, "Eventually, this steady drawdown from the reservoirs, and respective floodplains, will bring water levels low enough for contractors (weather and funding permitting) to begin repairs as early as Dec. 1." (emphasis mine)


Wow, Dec. 1. And don't you love how they make it sound like such good news. More on that another time. 

Thursday, July 21, 2011 :: How To Get Water When You Have No Water

Simple. Follow these easy steps...

Get yourself a 1500 gallon poly-tank and a trailer and fill it full of water. (the tank...not the trailer)

Fix yourself up all manner of fittings and valves coming out of said water tank so that the water goes into a pressure tank. 

Then run pressurized water line out of pressure tank, thru the doggie door into the garage... 

...through the garage into a hydrant in the wall of the garage...ok, so we had to remove the hydrant, and that is a long story in itself....

Start 'er all up and VOILA! Water in the house. The good kind.

Does that sound simple?? Oh yeah, you know it wasn't. Let me just tell you...


The water tank did not fit between the fenders of the trailer like it was supposed to. So it is loaded on the front and it is working, just not as planned.  The water shut-off valve in the house needed to be replaced for our "new water system" to work. When the plumber (Tom) cut through the line, water started coming out like mad. When I walked into the room, the water was about 6 inches deep. (We do not have a basement--this is on the main floor of the house.) They used black electrical tape to seal it off until we could get the valve shut off in the yard.

Which brings me to the next issue--the valve in the yard can only be shut off by using a long T-shaped "wrench". Since we had packed everything up in the house and garage, as well as the shop, we had no idea where that wrench was. Finally found that and then we couldn't find the valves in the yard. We had 6 people out there poking around in the ground with wires trying to hit the valve caps that were just under the grass. (Imagine driving by our house at that moment....) We ended up having to get a metal detector. (Thank you, Corey, for finding a metal detector for us!)

Valves located and wrench located, we tried to shut the valve off and it was froze up. Yes, I'm serious--I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried! The man who put the valves in (back in 1994) said he's put valves like that in for years and has never ever seen one freeze up before. Of course.


I don't even know how they got the valve issue resolved, but somehow Tom was able to do what he needed to do in the house and they hooked up the lines through a hydrant in the garage...turned it on...and blew out the hydrant. Water, once again, spewing everywhere in that little room in the house....

Got that water stopped, pulled the hydrant out and replaced it with a straight line. Turned water on again and the first thing we replaced, the valve, started spewing water. Turned water off. Fixed valve.

Turned water back on....and it worked!! PHEW!!

Now I suppose one of my children will trip over that blue line in the garage tomorrow and pull everything apart. Because that is just how things apparently go around here! 


But PRAISE GOD WE HAVE WATER.  It had been less than 24 hours and I was already getting tired of flushing the toilet with a bucket.
----------------------------------------------

One other thing--I found this satellite image of the flooding and wanted to show you how God has really just protected our area. In the duplicate images below, the left one just shows the image, but the right one shows the image with our place marked by a red dot and an arrow. So when I say we have water on 3 sides of us, I'm serious. (click on it for larger view)

How amazing is that!!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011 :: An Ironic NEW CRISIS

The most frequent question I get now-a-days is this, "Do you have water in your house?" Thankfully, the answer is no.

Except NOW, the answer will be, "No, in fact, we don't have ANY water AT ALL."


Yes, that's right, now we have NO water where there's supposed to BE water--IN..OUR..PIPES.  Apparently a water line has broken somewhere, likely under the rushing floodwater to the west of us, so they have shut off the water to everyone down this way. Nice.

They are going to do some investigating tomorrow to see if they can figure out where the break is and if it can be fixed (or kinda fixed). If not, guess what....we will have no water until the water goes down....which will be September or October.

How's that for irony. Yesterday having no water was good. Today having absolutely no water is BAD.

So for all of you that have this today...

...be thankful.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011 :: Amazing Video!

Wouldn't you know it, on a night I thought I wouldn't have anything to post, I ran across this video by Barnes Realty. It starts out near Fortescue and travels west over the highway at first, then the highway and railroad  (when they are together), then when the highway veers off to the south, the video stays on the railroad, then they come together again. (And for those who don't know, where the video begins is approximately 4-5 miles straight south of us.)

Particularly note the damage that is shown between 1:25 and 1:30. Truly amazing.

One thing people often don't realize if they aren't familiar with this area is that this video is of the WIDTH of the river, like from side to side, not upstream or downstream. The river flows (basically) from the north, to the south. This video was shot starting at the east, traveling west.

We're talking an amazing swath of destruction, and not just for the highway and railroad....

Monday, July 18, 2011 :: Photos!

Ok, since I didn't figure anyone was really interested in seeing photos of my pantry, I got some water shots for you today. Some of these kinda overlap others I have taken previously, but thought you might like to see what the water looks like today anyway.

Panoramic view a mile from our house, looking west, standing on top of the Little Tarkio Creek levee. The view is the same on the other side of the highway, there's just some trees blocking the view.
(click on it to view larger)

Looking back east you can see the levee that is protecting us, and our elevator on the other side. Our elevator is actually about 3/4 of a mile from the levee, even though it looks like it is sitting JUST on the other side of it.

This (in the circle) is a FISH....ALONG THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. You just don't see that everyday, now do ya. Ok, well we do, but not most people....

This is the highway under water. I believe the actual highway is starting to wash away in the circle. And we're in for another 6 weeks of this.

The debris along the side of the highway is really starting to pile up. Mostly corn stalks and other plant life...well, it was life....but also some "fun" stuff like lawn chairs, pieces of docks, propane tanks, and tires. My favorite so far, a can of WD-40...see I told you that stuff is useful!

A neighbor's house--these neighbors are in their 90's and are living at a truck stop hotel. Just saw them last night and they said the water was touching the bottoms of the main floor beams, but had not ruined the floor yet.

We've also been getting a lot of comments like, "The river's going down, isn't it?" Well, yes, but if you look at the front corner of this guy's house, you can see the water has went down about 6 inches. And do you think that has made this guy any bit of difference at this point? So yes, although the river has went down a little, we haven't seen the impact of that much at all.

And it looks like the river level has kinda leveled off.

I'd love to see this graph heading downwards, but hey, I'll take a flat-liner any day at this point.

Sunday, July 17, 2011 :: An Organized Pantry

Well, I had really intended to get some pictures today since some of you were disappointed I haven't posted any in the last few days. But that didn't happen. I DID, however, get my pantry put back together, which makes me so happy.  You try living with your pantry in rubbermaid tubs packed away in your daughter's bedroom for a month and you'll probably come to the same conclusion I have....let the flood have it, but one way or another, I'm putting it all back.   Trust me on this one.

One good thing is that my pantry NOW has NO food that is expired (did you know Jello actually expires??) and it is super tidy, clean, and organized. In fact, I'm so happy about my pantry, I'll share a picture with you...  Ok, ok, this is NOT MY PANTRY. But I do think this pantry is pretty cool. 

And my pantry is pretty organized at the moment. Complete with shelf labels...on clothespins so I can move them as the contents of my pantry changes. I've become a big fan of labeling things over the years. I'm so "global" that I can create a beautifully organized system, walk away from it for a day or two, and when I come back, I don't remember a lick of the system. So although I'm global, I can still read. Hence, the labels, and we're all happy.

We also finished moving everything from the garage back into the house. So although my garage and pantry look fabulous, my school/play room is a complete and total disaster. I should take a picture of THAT for you all. We didn't put anything into place because I'm trying to rearrange and I haven't decided on a configuration yet, so everything just got dumped. This is what I will be tackling this week. Along with about 150 boxes....

And the water? It's the same. Along with the smell. And the animals...although I do think we have one more skunk in the crawl space.... And since things aren't changing much in that department, I'm going to just start updating this blog whenever I have news...or a funny story, because you know how I love a funny story! But I WILL try to get some photos tomorrow and post tomorrow night. And if all else fails, I'll take some picture of MY pantry so we can all enjoy my clean, tidy, organized pantry together.

Saturday, July 16, 2011 :: Assessment

I thought it would be a good time for an assessment of our situation, because the question I hear most is, "What's the situation where you're at?"

#1 We are still dry here at our house and shop. The ground water is pretty close to the surface--our crawl space is full of water and the ditches in our yard have water, but dry otherwise. So thankful for this!
#2 To the west (towards Big Lake), water is in the fields in the lower areas for about a mile, then you come up and over the Little Tarkio Creek Levee and it is solid water beyond that.
#3 To the south (towards Fortescue), there's water over "Tater Ridge Road"-that's about 1/4 mile south of us. Water is in the lower areas, including in the ditches and lower parts of the field right across the highway from us.
#4 To the east (towards Mound City), about a mile down the highway there's quite a bit of water in some of the lower fields--like 2-3 feet I'd say. But between us and that, the ditches are full and lower areas in some fields.
#5 To the north of us, dry other than ditches and lower areas.
#6 Immediate threats--the only threat we have right now is the Little Tarkio Creek levee. We believe this would have to break for us to see water in our house. And although this is a possibility, we don't see it as a critical threat right now.
#7 When will the water start to leave? Well, at the earliest, September. The dam that is releasing water that is effecting us will be releasing this much water until late August. So the water has no place to go until the river starts to go down and only then can it carry some of our water away.

All this to say, things are kinda at a stand-still. We have water, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere, better or worse. And this will continue for a while.

So with that assessment, we decided to return the semi trailer that has been parked in our yard for our "emergency evacuation." We're so thankful for friends willing to leave their truck and trailer parked in our yard for half of the summer! But it doesn't seem to look like we will be needing it.

And now, for the fun part of unpacking all of the boxes and putting everything back together and in place. And then we HOPE AND PRAY that the levee holds because next time we think we're going to get flooded, I'm inclined to let the flood have it all.

And THAT is the current situation of where we're at.  Water is stable, so we're trying to get our lives back to normal. I just hope I remember what normal is for us...it's been so long....

MORE Perspective....

Forgot to include this photo (THANK YOU, JODY) in my post for Friday.

Here's an additional "perspective" of our place. (Click on photo for larger view.) This photo was taken today, we believe. For bearings, north is the right-hand edge of the photo.

The "closing parenthesis" shape is the dike around our house/yard that ties into the highway at the top and bottom. The large grouping of grain bins in the center of the photo is our elevator. (Thankful we got all of our grain out, just in case!) The long brown rectangle on the other side of the highway is that field with the dead strip down the middle. Behind our house (in the center of that field) you can see how the water is in the ditches and into the field in places, but not bad.

Traveling west (or upward in the photo) you can see the fields have water in the lower areas. At the very top of the photo (about a mile west of us) you can see water water water. The Little Tarkio Creek levee is what is holding that water back from us. Did I mention how thankful I am for THAT??

Friday, June 15, 2011 :: Perspective

Perspective is a funny thing. The wrong perspective can make you think you have the worst situation in the world. The right perspective can make you realize there are always blessings to count. I've been thinking a lot about perspective in a crisis this week.

I think sometimes when we're going through a trial, it is so easy to see nothing more than that trial, staring you right in the face, 24/7. It is consuming, overwhelming, and exhausting. So it's no wonder our perspective gets skewed. But it is in those times, in these times, that I must step back and realign my perspective. For example...

...I have no water in my house.  I know people who's homes are underwater, up to the gutters and beyond. People just a few miles down the road.
...I have no water, to speak of, in my yard. I know people who will have no grass, no trees, no flowers, and no bushes left when this is all over with. Well, that's not entirely true--they will have dead grass, dead trees, dead flowers, and dead bushes....all which must be cleaned up. These people live all around me.
...I get to see my husband every evening. We are not separated by the river. I know people who live on the other side and work on this side who spend the entire week away from their family, only spending the weekends together. These people work less than 5 miles from me.
...I have the privacy of my home, as well as all of the conveniences of home like a stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer, my own bed, and my own shower. I know people who are living with friends and relatives, or without conveniences we take for granted, like running water, or a stove. These people are my friends and family. 
...My husband does not have to drive 5 hours to work every day. I know people who do. These people are my friends.  
....We have only had to give up some preferences. (We would prefer to not live out of boxes. We would prefer not to have skunks in our crawl space or the air to smell like the sewer.) Some people have had to give up so..much..more. These people are my friends.
...Some people feel like they have lost everything, and to them, they have. But from an eternal perspective, we know that we have only lost things that really weren't ours to begin with. We also have figured out you don't realize how much you find satisfaction in your possessions until they are being pried out of your hands.

So, I don't know about you, but I have tons of things to be thankful for. Absolutely tons. And if my situation were different and I had water in my house, I'd STILL have tons to be thankful for.

What are you thankful for today? If you can't think of anything, maybe it's time to step back for a new perspective.

Thursday, July 14, 2011 :: More wildlife

Well, apparently the garden..is..toast. Dustin said something has been eating just about everything, including the tomato plants--there's nothing left but stems. Fantastic. Chalk up thing #83 that has bit the bullet because of the flood.

In other wildlife news, we have these big weird green beetles flying around in the front yard. Like these (the green ones on the left--I did not take this picture):

They fly really close to the ground and their size and sound is very reminiscent of a bumble bee. Apparently they are Green June Bugs, and in the picture above, it is shown next to a normal June Bug. Yeah, I told you they were big. Yick.

I think maybe they are hatching out of the grass...which would make the skunks digging up every inch of the front yard make more sense. Has anyone else seen these?? I'm not sure if they arrived because of the flood or just because they thought we needed some new pets.

A new indoor wildlife addition around here is ANTS. And guess where my ant poison is at? Yep, in some box somewhere. I remember having an issue with ants during the '93 flood, too. And although they're not as bad as most of the other things we've encountered, still. I have ANTS IN MY HOUSE. 


I'm afraid to even wonder what might be next.


The mosquitos haven't been quite as bad the last few days. Of course that might be because Dustin sprayed the living tar out of the entire yard to kill them all. So, we'll probably all die of cancer next year, but we will NOT be dying of West Nile.

I guess just one other wildlife tidbit--the other day (when we still had a dead skunk in the yard) there was a turkey buzzard that landed up on the top of our chimney. Those things are HUGE. (And ugly, I might add.) I ran in the house the get the camera, but it was gone when I returned. So you'll just have to settle for this picture I swiped off of the internet. How would you like one of those sitting in top of YOUR chimney, looking for it's next meal....

And last but not least, I was on someone else's blog today and saw this image, which I just loved:

And how true it is. Sometimes, being able to cope with life is all a matter of having a right perspective. When our perspective gets "off", that's when we get ourselves into real trouble.


More on that tomorrow!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011 :: Normalcy

Not only do I not have any new photos for you, but I really have no new news for you. I guess that is good!

We did deliver some T-shirts today. Looks like we may be making another order soon, so if you're interested... Was nice to chat with some people about the frustrations of the flood. Also made me thankful we are still living in our house...such as it is.

I think we're going to start unpacking a few more boxes. But today we had normal life to attend to--you know, things like cooking, cleaning, laundry, changing diapers, etc., so the boxes got left. I also spent several hours detailing the Suburban--yikes!! I'm tempted to say there will be NO MORE FOOD in there, but I know how long that will last.

So we're just hanging out here, with nothing new to report. Thanks for checking on us and for praying for us. Now I'm going TO BED!! (Right after I post this photo of my purple cone flowers...the ones I thought for sure were going to drown!! So thankful I was wrong! And I guess this means I DID have a new photo for you, just not one that is 75% water.)

Tuesday, June 12, 2011 :: New Shoes and Simplifying

First of all, now that we have received our first shipment of T-shirts, we thought we'd add these beauties to our line of products:

Ok, NO, I'm NOT serious, but aren't those a hoot?? (Thanks, Jen VDH, for sending me the pic!) They're called High Tide Heels. I think they are actually a legitimate product, which is just plain weird. Imagine seeing someone walk down the hall at church with these babies on. Imagine someone walking AT ALL with these babies on. Yeah.

The skunk smell is gone (as are the skunks we believe) but now it smells like the SEWER outside. This is from all of the dying plants around us. At some point the smell will subside once all of the plants are done rotting, but WOW is it intense at the moment. Want to come over for supper?? At one point I kept thinking the baby had a poopy diaper, then realized no, it's just the smell from outside. (The wind had picked up and the smell was coming in around the windows and front door.) It is sad when one cannot differentiate the difference between a poopy diaper and the air from outside of your house.

Originally, my plan for this summer was to go through the house and simplify things and our lives. I mentioned this on facebook a while back, but I had been reading this book, Organized Simplicity, and the author talks about how when our lives (and homes) are filled with stuff, we spend most of our time just taking care of our stuff, and then we don't have time to do some pretty important things like spending quality time with friends and family, and ministering to others. She outlines in the book how to go through your house, room by room, and completely simplify. However, then the whole flood thing happened, and we moved out, and then back in...kinda....so MY take on the whole simplifying thing has been a little different. I suggested to Dustin today that we only unpack the things we actually use, and only at the moment that we actually need them, and that we leave everything else in boxes and whatever is left after a year, we throw or give away.

I thought he was going to pass..out. And it was NOT because I suggested we throw or give away our stuff. Actually, he was ready to give away the whole trailer full of our stuff before we unpacked it!  No, no, it was the very suggestion that we leave ANYTHING in boxes for a year. You see, I not only live with Mr. Clean, I live with Mr. Clean/Organized/TypeA/Control Freak. (And actually, I like that about him most of the time.) So the very thought of doing this for 10 seconds longer than we have to is pure torture for him. <sigh> And here I thought my whole leave-it-for-a-year-and-then-pitch-it idea was pretty good! Someone try it, will ya? And let me know how it goes. I digress....

One thing I have realized through our whole ordeal is that we have too much stuff. And I don't think it's just us, I think just about everyone in America has too much stuff. And I've been trying really hard, as we live fairly minimally right now, to question every thing we own, if it is really necessary to own it.

In the book (Organized Simplicity) she suggests that we do NOT need a unique appliance or tool for every task. In fact, she suggests getting rid of any tool, gadget, or appliance that only accomplishes one specific task. That's great advice. Of course every rule has an exception, because I can't for the life of me figure out what else to use the burr coffee grinder for, but I'm NOT getting rid of that! (Dustin really WOULD pass out!!)

So, as I (slowly) go through boxes, I'm questioning the necessity of each and every item. And I've decided I don't need six 9x13 baking dishes. I don't need five cookie sheets. And I certainly don't need that silly Soda Stream machine that seemed like such a fun idea last Christmas.  And I'm hoping that by freeing myself from the slavery of stuff, I'll have more time and energy to do the really important things in life.

Want to join me by simplifying YOUR home and life? It's guaranteed to be painful at first, but worth the effort in the long run. What do you suppose you can live without? (And no, you really shouldn't give away your spouse or any children...)

Monday, July 11, 2011

Item of Business #1) I just got the T-shirts tonight! I've been sorting and labeling and tomorrow I hope to get them in the mail, delivered, or stocked at Gordon Auto Body for those picking them up locally. If you ordered a T-shirt, though, I will let you know!  I did order several extra, so if you want one but didn't order one, let me know ASAP and I'll let you know what I have.

Item of Business #2) Hooray, I found the cables to my 2 non-expensive cameras!! Of course they weren't where I thought they should be. Oh well.... So anyway, here are the photos I was wanting off of this camera:
Remember the guy with the corn field and all of his corn was getting flooded and falling over? Here's how he "improved" his seed variety sign this week:

I love this.

For those of you who don't have any idea what this sign is, this is what farmer's do.... When their field of whatever is up and growing beautifully, their seed rep (the guy who sold them the seed) will come and place a sign listing what variety of corn or beans is growing there. You may be asking, "Why on earth would anyone care?" Well, no one does care, except other farmers. But those other farmers care immensely. Because let's face it, farmers drive around and look at other farmers' crops. And these little signs are like little advertisements saying, "PLANT ME NEXT YEAR, PLANT ME".

So I guess Mike's advice is this--if you plan to have a foot or two of water on your field next year, Pioneer P0461 may NOT be your best choice. (Actually, rice may be your best choice...)

Also, we still have the National Guard stationed about 1/4 mile to the east of us--they have a check-point set up there. This means every time you go through there, they ask for your name and get your license plate number. The guys who take the night shift have been trying to figure out the best way to keep our killer mosquitoes away. I think they've tried just about everything. One of them finally went to Walmart and got this:

...a screen tent. They say it works the best of all of the things they've tried. Last night when I asked if I could take a picture of him with his tent, I think he thought I had went crazy. But the National Guard is always the utmost in polite, so he obliged me anyway.

And those mosquitoes are still pretty nasty. Today, in 95 degree weather at 2:30 in the afternoon, while mowing the yard, a mosquito was trying to get me through my jeans shorts. That's what I call determination.

The water looks like it is going down a bit, and our handy-dandy chart looks something like this:

This is good. Although I don't expect it to go any lower than this until they stop releasing all of that water up north.

And I leave you with this photo from our ocean-view property...

Sunday, July 10, 2011 :: How to Kill a Skunk in 5 Easy Steps

Well, I took some photos for you all today, with my little point-and-shoot I keep in my purse...but I can't find the cable to plug it into my computer. Apparently it is packed away somewhere. Such..is..my..life. Tonight I was going to heat up some left-overs I took home from a restaurant earlier this week and needed a cookie sheet...no idea where the cookie sheets are. I did find a cake pan and made that work.

I really thought with everything packed up, I would have nothing to do this summer but relax. But in reality, I spend way too much time digging through rows of boxes trying to find that one stinking thing I need in order to accomplish a (normally) really simple task. I'm not complaining, I'm just venting frustration...ok, maybe I'm complaining.

Anyway, all that to say I have some really good photos for you, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow I guess...and that is assuming I can even locate those cables!!

On the good news front, I FOUND MY IPOD!! I was beginning to lose hope on that one. And no, it was not packed away in some weird random box with no label. It was in the arm-rest of the car...its normal spot. Sometimes I am my own worst enemy.

Also in good news, the sump pump is reducing the water level in our crawl space. And we think the last remaining skunk has been taken care of. But we have yet to find it.

And did you all know that you can legally kill nuisance skunks by either trapping them or shooting them. No other methods are legal. So I'm betting I could possibly go to jail for this one:

How To Kill a Skunk When You've Officially Lost Your Mind
#1) Suspect skunk has crawled into drainage pipe and convince your brother-in-law if he were a good brother-in-law, he would put that canvas bag over the end. (THANK YOU, DARWIN!) In my defense, I WAS the one to tie the rope around it.

#2) Secure triple-ply trash bag over the canvas bag with zip ties. (I love zip ties. If I ever have to be stranded on a desert island, I'm taking along duct tape, W-D40, and zip ties. And I'll be off that desert island in no time. What?!? You don't make lists of things you'd take if you're ever stranded on a desert island??)

#3) Stick garden hose in the gutter and secure with duct tape. (See, I'm telling you, duct tape can help in almost any situation!)

Here's an extra photo just so you get an overall picture of what's going on here....do you know where this is headed?

#4) Turn water on full-blast and let it run for approximately three  five  seven ten minutes. (If you look closely you can see water spraying out of the top of the gutter.)

#5) Turn water off, take off bags, and dispose of contents.

Before all you skunk-lovers have a cow, do you know what I found inside the drainage tube when it was all over with? About a gazillion June bugs. NO SKUNK. So relax. Apparently it was the wind that was making the tube jiggle up and down like it was, making me think the skunk was inside. See, these skunks are making me crazy. I think I'm seeing them everywhere now!

Status of the water? About the same. No significant rise and no significant fall. Water still in the ditches, and about a mile in any direction. Except now I have a flooded flower bed, but I guess that's my own fault, isn't it.

Saturday, July 9, 2011 :: HOUSE FOR SALE :: SKUNKS FREE!

FOR SALE: TWO-STORY HOME IN A VERY QUIET (DOWNRIGHT DESERTED) "GATED" COMMUNITY. RIVER-VIEW JUST 1 MILE IN ANY DIRECTION. ABUNDANT WILDLIFE. THE ULTIMATE "LIVE-OFF-THE-LAND" EXPERIENCE--VEGETABLES FROM THE GARDEN, THEN CLIMB THE DIKE AND GO FISHING IN THE MISSOURI RIVER! OR FRY UP SOME MOSQUITO LEGS (THEY'RE BIGGER THAN THE FROGS AROUND HERE). INCLUDED IN PURCHASE: A CASE OF INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH BUG REPELLANT AND NOSE PLUGS. (WE THINK THE SMELL FROM THE SKUNK THAT SPRAYED IN THE CRAWL SPACE UNDER THE HOUSE TODAY WILL DISSIPATE....SOMEDAY...)

Yes, you read correctly. The skunk stunk. In my crawlspace under the house. And then the air conditioner ran and got the "smell" in the filter. Now every time the AC runs, the house smells like sku-hu-unk again. We're going to pull the filter here in a minute and see if it smells and if that is the reason. It could also be just the circulation of air. Either way, this is one smelly problem. The bad news is we don't even know if the skunk died and released its scent, or if it is alive, got scared, and let it fire. Dustin thought he ought to check, but when he opened the crawl space doors to see, this is what he found:

Add to the listing above, "PRIVATE SWIMMING POOL IN BASEMENT." (It is kinda hard to see, but those boards and other un-identifiables are floating in about 3 foot of water.)

So much for checking on the skunk in the crawl space.

IF indeed it is dead, that would make 3. (We got #2 today also.) Let's just hope 3 is ALL of them. After all, 3 IS enough! :) And for all of you animal lovers that think I am just plain awful for killing skunks, sorry.  Next time I'll call you and you can come catch them, haul them to your house, and let them dig up half of your yard looking for grub worms and live (and SPRAY) in your basement. Deal?

And I'm just kidding about the whole house for sale thing. Shoot, no other place could possibly compare in the level of "excitement" this one offers!  Also, as for the whole "fishing" thing, there is NO WATER outside our dike, except for some water in the low spots from rain. Here's a look from the other day:

So, there's really no fishing off of the dike just yet. But you could walk down the road a mile to the west and fish there. If you can put up with the mosquitoes.

Decided today to get a picture of the water about a mile to the east of us. This is on the other side of Bigelow:

And although it is not as deep as to the west of us, it is definitely deep enough to kill this used-to-be-beautiful field of corn. We don't own this, but it still makes me sick.

Here's also the field just across the road from our house (and this field we DO own): (click on it for larger view)

It doesn't look too bad, except for the dead spot through the middle that is lower than the rest. Certainly not as bad as THIS field we own:

As for our house, here's a look at it from today:

See Mom everyone, we're fine, at least for today. And so very thankful. Because while many of our friends and neighbors are living elsewhere in less-than-ideal living arrangements, waiting for water to leave their homes and yards so clean-up can begin, we're just dealing with swimming-pool-basements, smelly skunks, a house that looks like I could be featured in an episode of "Hoarders", and the challenge of how to mow a squishy yard. Things could definitely be worse.