Wednesday, August 31 :: I Know You've Missed Me!

Ok, ok. I hear you already. You're wondering if I'm EVER going to post again. Yes, I know it's been a while. Sorry. Things just pretty much look the same around here, so I didn't figure you all wanted to see more of the same old thing. I know I don't want to see more of the same old thing around here!


But the water is starting to go down, so there are a few new things to post, and hopefully that will continue (both accounts) from now on!

First, the most common question I get now is, "Did they ever find that Trooper?"

No, they did not, although they do believe he is still in that 50 foot cavern under the highway. They told the family they are just going to have to wait until the water is gone and then recover the body. Assuming it is still there. The family is really hurting, so please send up a prayer or two for them.

I said the water is going down. Yes, that is a great thing! But don't misunderstand--there's still a LOT of water left. Case and point:

 Won't this be a fun mess to clean up when it's all over with.

And lastly, look here--Walmart sprung up in my back yard!

Ok, not Walmart. The guys are building a new shop just west of our house. It is nice, amid all of the destruction and inconveniences of the flood, to see something beneficial going on.

More coming soon, INCLUDING a picture of skunk #6!! (Yes, you read correctly! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??  Yes, I bet you can!)

Sunday, August 14, 2011 :: Skunk #5 Welcome's Us Home

You know, I always suspected there was one more skunk. And when we took off for a week's vacation in Branson last Sunday, and Dustin said it kinda smelled like a dead animal in the crawl space when he closed the doors, I wondered what we would come home to.

Well, this is what we came home to....hello skunk #5 (or what was left of skunk #5):

Yes, that's right, it is dead, floating in water in our crawl space.

And goodbye skunk #5:

Seriously, that was disgusting. And the whole house still smells like dead animal skunk.

And you would think that would be enough drama for us to come home to, right??? RIGHT???

Of course not.

Remember that room that had water all over the floor when we put our "new water system" in? Well, our hot water heater is in that little room, too. And today, of all days, upon arriving home and turning the water system back on, it decided to spring a leak and continuously pour water all over the floor. "What caused that?" you ask?? I have no idea. It is less than 10 years old.

I have to tell you, I wasn't even surprised. I just went and got the Little Green Machine and started sucking up water. Two buckets full.


And it just kept coming. So, of course you would think, "Just turn the water valve off to the hot water heater." Oh yes, it should be that simple, shouldn't it. But not here, in twilight zone world. No, the only way to shut the water off to the hot water heater is to shut the water off to the whole house.

And our plumber would have had one in stock, but for some reason that didn't make sense to me and doesn't really matter, he doesn't. So, I guess we're living without water, once again. 


But here's the best part. Realizing we couldn't have water draining out of the hot water heater onto that floor anymore (we're starting to fear the floor might cave in at some point....), Dustin takes a drill in there and drills a hole through the floor. So the water can drain into the crawl space. (which is full of water anyway) And as he puts the drill away, he comments, "There are advantages to living in an old house--when the water starts to pour out on the floor, you just drill a hole."

So either we've officially gone crazy, or we've learned the lesson of just dealing with a crisis rather than reacting to it.

Speaking of crisis', (and one that is bigger than skunks and hot water heaters) they apparently have not found the State Trooper that disappeared here nearly 2 weeks ago. The search has been scaled back significantly, although as of tonight, it was still ongoing. We've heard the Red Cross and the Mobile Command Unit will be leaving soon. I hope they find him, at least so the family can have some sort of closure.

Jamie and/or Rick Barnes posted another video of the Railroad work going on. It is interesting, especially when you think they have raised the actual highway in order to accomplish the work they are doing on the rails. (The highway would have been under water most, if not all, of this way.) Of course I wonder what one does with that partially one lane highway once the water recedes. As if the state department didn't have their work cut out for them already...

Here's the video:


On the bright side, we had a fantastic vacation. It was so nice to get away and just spend some relaxing time not dealing with anything but what fun thing to do next. No hip-waders, no boxes to unpack, no SKUNKS, no check points, just fun. Of course, we live surrounded by water, and where did we spend most of our time on vacation?? Yes, IN WATER.

August 5, 2011 :: Quick Update and a Funny Story

It is raining a little here today. Search efforts for Trooper Fred Guthrie are still ongoing--I can hear an air-boat when I go outside.

I posted this on facebook, but thought I'd re-post here--the video below was taken in June, but this is the area they believe Fred disappeared from and are searching in. Most people cannot imagine how much water there is, so hopefully this will help you all understand. The water also extends for miles in every direction of where the video was taken. This is a 360 degree view, and about half-way thru, you can see the current rolling over the highway.


I've also read people are tying blue ribbons around their trees to show support for Trooper Guthrie and the search efforts for him. Of course I didn't have any wide blue ribbon, but I did have wide blue strapping, so I tied that around our tree. From a distance, you can't tell it isn't ribbon...don't tell!

The water situation remains the same, although some of the very last areas to flood are draining away a little. I imagine that is due to the lack of rain and the slightly lower release level from Gavin's Point.

Our indoor water situation remains the same. We can go a little over a week on one tank, and then it has to be hauled into town, refilled, hauled back out here, and re-hooked up. Makes a person thankful for the times you just throw on your water, and out it comes.

Having realized very recently that we can now put my 4-year-old's hair in a pony tail, it reminded me of a funny story. I always love a funny story, and since there seems to be a lack of funny things going on around here right now, I decided to point you all over to my personal blog (where I use code names for my children...yeah, probably should have on this blog, too...), to a "situation" that occurred about a year and a half ago. It is the most non-life-threatening-yet-ultra-dramatic....maybe ultra-traumatic....thing that's ever happened to me. Some of you read this post way-back-when, but for those who haven't, or those who just want to laugh until they cry again, here you go:

Why Moms Get Gray Hair

Enjoy! And have a great weekend!

August 1, 2011 :: More from our neck of the woods...

Well, if you have heard about the missing Missouri State Trooper, that is unfolding just about in our back yard. Ok, so not in our back yard, but very very close to us.
Click here to watch the newscast about it.

This newscast was recorded 1/4 mile to the east of our house. In fact, my brother emailed me tonight and said, "We're watching the news and the news guy is right by your house."  Yep, that's true.


The truck and boat was found 2 miles on the other side (west) of our house, down at what we call Newburg's corner. Remember this photo?

That's where the trooper disappeared from.

And although I've checked twice to make sure all of our doors are locked tonight, we're probably the safest we've ever been with 30 State Troopers driving back and forth.

I hope the guy is fine. Even if he just fell in the water, the current down at that corner is massive. Seriously, please join me in praying for him.

It's now midnight and the patrol cars are still driving by like crazy.

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.
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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.