A break from the heat and humidity is just what we needed and today was quite the gift. I would love many weeks and months such as we had today. I have one basement closet to finish up and then the basement has totally been cleaned and tweaked and most importantly . . . it’s dry. I took a huge break on the back patio, leaned my head back on the chair, and let the light wind beckon me to close my eyes for a bit. With any luck, Dennis will be out and about during the supper hour and I can enjoy a bowl of Cheerios and call it good.
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Noreen
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Noreen
My Mom Knew
In times past after my Dad had passed away, I would travel to my parent’s farm and spend time with my Mom helping her with some things. Not that my Mom could not have gotten them done on her own, but it gave us a chance to spend time together. Martin, Mom’s neighbor, happened to stop in for coffee on one such a visit of mine. I had known Martin almost my entire life. While Mom was describing something I had done for her, she told Martin I had a lot of tenacity. I had not ever heard my Mom use that word let alone that she knew what it meant.
That was several decades ago and I am here to tell you, I still have it. I had, and still do have, tenacity. It didn’t matter if was stacking bales on the hay rack in an alfalfa field in the heat of the day or at a time when the kid’s father, Orlin, and I were making a home out of a chicken cope in Texas. Get it done.
This last week I did think I was wavering. Our lawn mowing and trimming went great and Stauffer Avenue never looked finer. That night a strong thunder storm brought a lot of rain in a short amount of time. The next morning by the time I got up Dennis had already been moving things out of the porch. Yup. It, right along with the patio, had flooded and there was work waiting for us. One thing led to another and we tackled getting the mud off of the patio that surround the porch. The ground was so saturated there was no way more water from the garden hose could be used to flush it off. As the Koi pond was overflowing, I used an empty ice cream pail of pond water to take a small area at a time, and low and behold eventually the brushed aggregate was looking good. That is how the two and a half inches treated us on Tuesday.
Friday the warnings came that more storms and rain were headed our way. When all was said and done it was four and sixth tenths of rain. At Friday night, midnight, I had to put shoes on, and with my trusty CSI flashlight I walked out to the edge of our garage and shone the light off of all the water that was on the patio and right east of our house. In the morning we could see that our entire backyard was a lake. Water, water, water.
Saturday morning the patio was again tackled for a cleanup. There was no way I could stand by and not begin a cleanup. The silt was a slimy mess. Dennis had been watching the north side of our home where the sump pump takes the water from the tile around the house. The sump pump was running every 35 seconds on Saturday. With all the rain of the week, the soil could not take it away as fast as it was collecting. We were having a huge amount of standing water right up to the north side of the house. So not a good thing from what our objective is. Dennis put our portable sump pump into the midst of it and has been running the water via the garden hose out into the curb and gutter. Yesterday and today he has been on standby to periodically plug in the portable pump to take away much of the water from north of the house. Here we are today and the house pump is still running every 75 seconds.
With Dennis working with sump pumps, today was my day to tackle the two closets we have in our basement. These closets were not included in the tile job. These closets were actually a part of the old cistern that was in the basement. The floors of these closets are like a shallow dish. If there is enough seepage through the foundation they will run over and drain into the tile that goes around the perimeter of the basement, with the remaining standing water. Today Dennis helped me get the wet vacuum into the basement so I could begin work on drying out these floors. Of course, we had carpets on the floors and we consider them excellent storage spaces. I must say that over the years we have gotten a bit wiser. During this latest mess, we had one cardboard box get wet. Cardboard and basements are not a good mix no matter what.
Here we are on Father’s Day evening, so very thankful that though we are weary beyond belief from this last week, we are safe and our home is secure. Tenacity, where would Dennis and I be without it? Mom, I am here to tell you, we don’t give in and we don’t give up.
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Noreen
These are duck days! As I wrote on my blog yesterday, I was planning on smoking through one of my books and a few stitches today. Ya, right. Who knew that the rainfall would end up being 4.6 inches with a lot of wind in yesterday’s late afternoon and evening.
The saving grace was that the carpet had not been replaced as yet in the porch. Dennis was in and out during the rains and he said it was like opening one patio door to let the rain runs out of the opposite door.
This morning was fairly cool so I put on my old shoes and began taking the mud off of the patio. Our whole yard is so water logged, it can’t help but back up. As the water is absorbed the yuck remains. When Dennis and I were done, I went to the driveway and hosed myself off from the knees on down, toweled off, put on dry shoes and called it a good day. It is inconvenient to have to clean up after a rain, but I can do it many many times as long as I don’t have building damage or have trees that have been busted to pieces.
Tomorrow is another day and I look forward to it and everyone who the good Lord allows.
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Noreen
Errands have been run this forenoon before the temps started to rise. I am equipped with several books, and of course sewing studio possibilities to wait out the weekend that is forecast to be hot and humid. There is nowhere we need to be other than right here on Stauffer where we are safe, sound and cool. Any fellow out there that is lucky enough to have a family to be the head of is getting my support for the Father’s Day weekend.
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Noreen
Strike While the Muscles are Warm
We did have a great day yesterday of moving everything from our porch to the little red pickup garage to allow the porch to dry out from the heavy rains of late. We admit it was a huge project to clear everything out to allow for the soaked carpet to be taken out. Dennis was amazed that the floor underneath was wet, but clean. No bugs alive or dead. We both slept in this morning, but there were no lasting pains from yesterday. I walked the yard with Butter Ball close behind. Each and every day there may be a change in the plants and the two of us are on patrol each day.
We enjoyed our morning coffee sitting in our favorite chairs watching our usual morning news on the television, just in a slightly different location. It won’t hurt the pickup to sit out on the driveway for a few days. We both knew that once the dew was off the grass, we were in for getting the acre mowed today. Yesterday we had drug the carpet out to the south side of the garage and Dennis was determined that it was not staying there. Tidy, tidy. Believe it or not, we drug it over to our neighbor’s burning pit and it did not take long for it be be gone. Let’s hear it for Dennis’ determination and the good will of neighbor Bob allowing us to us his burning pit whenever we need it.
Late afternoon and we now have the acre groomed and it is looking smart.
Grasses trimmed and perennials giving a good showing. Dennis and I worked together and the mowing and trimming is completed. I am sitting here contemplating fixing supper. With sleeping late, our breakfast became brunch. I think we are in the market for fixing some burgers on the stove top with Bush’s beans as a companion.Team Stauffer has had two great days to keep the muscles toned up.
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Noreen
A New Day, A New Start
Yesterday’s storms of winds and rains are passed. What was left behind was a flooded patio and porch area. The best decision of ours was to take out the carpet, in two pieces, and allow the floor to dry. With everything out of the porch it looks so big. This 12′ x 16′ space makes our small home just right for the two of us. The floor is drying, and we started on getting the mud off of the patio and it is all going to feel like a brand new start. Mud and rain is the least of the worries of a storm as we had no trees go down or hail damage to our buildings. Yup, life is good on Stauffer Avenue.
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Noreen
Wham – the winds and the rain were not timid. We have a small plastic hut on the patio for the cats and kittens if they need shelter when the porch is not open. Dennis watched it float to the far northwest corner of the patio.
Of course our porch is flooded. The water from the patio ran over the sill of the doors. We had mentioned that we were in need of new carpet. We will be evacuating most of the contents to get the porch dried out and it would be a logical to do the carpeting at this time.
Our rain gauge holds three inches. It is still raining at 5:15. When Dennis last came in we were at 2.75 inches. Rain waters can be dried out and thankfully we had no damaging winds.
Life still remains good on Stauffer Avenue.
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Noreen
All is Right
A light breeze today to allow the flag to look its best. The gardens are filled out and knock on wood, so far no slugs to take away from their beauty. My coffee cup is close at hand on the table. All is right and I am in my element for a good day.
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Noreen
I believe Dennis and I are both feeling being out in the hot wind yesterday for a graduation reception. The temps were at the 90 degree mark and we didn’t feel it until we got home. Today Dennis is in a nappy mode. He may feel bad about it, but the ole body does not lie, it wants what it wants. He just needs to regenerate.
What’s this gal to do when the heat takes away vim and vigor. . . I hit my sewing studio and tore apart my sewing machine for a good cleaning and oiling. As I was picking fuzz, my mind was working on a birthday card that is in its “what if” stage. I do feel better when I have a few irons in the fire.
When I did go out to see if the heat was abating about five p.m., and by the way it was not, even Harriet and Tabatha were stretched out as far as their four legs would let them. The heat hits everyone.
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Noreen
Had a great road trip to the North country. A stop at Fairfax is always a good side stop to visit with Kersten and Kevin. We motored on to attend my niece’s son’s graduation reception. A very hot day that was made doable under shade trees. Brendon will be headed to Texas after boot camp for training as a Combat Medic. God speed to the young man.
