Survived it all

Garden was okay this year. Didn't put all my efforts into it as our son was going to college and my wife had me pretty busy with college and that entails. Phew!!!



We were hit like most people in our region with the deluge of water last weekend. First time my basement flooded. I have a big old heap of carpeting to get out to the street thanks to about 6 inches of water. Learned a few things. I bought a pool cover pump that worked like magic as it took most of the water our of my basement and pumped it into my sink. Very inexpensive. Once the water was gone, mildew and a general smell took over. Again, learned something here too. If you have a flooded basement, go out and buy regular charcoal. Spread it out in cookie sheets and lay on the floor. Absorbs the remaining moisture and odors pretty quickly. Never knew that.



Oh, and as my wife found out the hard way, don't stand in the water and unplug a phone. She ended up in the hospital for the shock she got. She is fine except her arm hurts but we were assured that will go away. We were lucky for sure.



So, as you would surmise, my gardens are looking pretty bad now. Sometimes life doesn't allow for pleasure.

Sorry to hear about your wife and glad to hear that she will be ok.



Thank you for posting about the charcoal. That makes perfect sense and I'll have to give that a try. Our basement floods often, I say a river runs through it, lol. It's just a place to store things (off the floor of course). But the smell is not that great.



Some years are better than others. Good luck next year!

If you get constant flooding, maybe you should look into the pool cover pumps. They have ones that go for about $60.00 that are automatic. All you do is hook up a garden hose and run that to a drain. It took my water down to less than an inch and then I used my wet-vac from there. One other hint about the charcoal. You can get knee highs and put brickets in them and hang them where you need them. A woman at work told me that what she does since her basement floods too. Just trying to help.

Thank you very much for the suggestions. Our basement is graded towards the drain in the back, so nothing stays for long, but when it rains, water pours in. Our foundation is not so good for one thing. Plus, the concrete sidewalk that was built by the previous owners slopes in towards the foundation (I always wonder what they were thinking). We will fix it eventually, just like every thing else, lol.