Latest flood pics

^general view of how high the water has risen^

^red gate closest to the river^

^barn^

^equipment shed^

^front of chicken coop and into pole barn^

^behind the barn^

^behind barn again^

^water level on the back of barn^

^It's a good thing Bob tied the propane tank down, because it's floating!^

^behind the house^

The river is supposed to crest tomorrow sometime at around a foot higher than it is now. We are praying that we can continue to win the fight in the basement where the sewer keeps trying to back up. We are using as little water as possible as well as a portable outhouse we rented just for this "special" occasion! Ha! Hopefully this will be enough to get us through with no damage to the basement at all. That would certainly be something to praise the Lord for! I (Sheryll) just keep praying for God's mercy on us. It seems He has granted it so far, we just trust it continues. Thanks so much for all of your prayers for us. Although we are getting a little weary now, we have had peace throughout the flood situation and are so very thankful that we have not had it any worse than we have. We realize how blessed we are and we attribute that to the prayers of our friends and family on our behalf!

The Hughes' (Sid & Orrin's) houses

^ Orrin & Chantel's house^

^Orrin & Chantel's~ look how close it is to the top in the right side of the pic^

^Sid & Twilla's storefront^

^Sid & Twilla's house^

^Sid & Twilla's from the highway^

Update

^Our hay field^

^The horses pasture between our house and the hay field^

^Equipment shed^

^Pole barn^

^Friends (& Trevor's) cars, campers, and backhoe lined up at the top of our property to stay dry^

^Barn & chicken coop^

^River side of the barn. The little silver gate here is the entrance to what WAS our garden^

^Red gate close to river. There is a pic of this in yesterday's post that lets you see just how much it came up last night.^

^Barn on left, tool shed on right^

^This is how close it's coming to the house. This side of the tall grass is Laddie's yard.^

This is as of about 8:00am on 6/25/11. We wil post more as things change and we are able. We have spent the morning today getting the last of the calves out of the barn and moving all of Trevor's chicks that he sells as "meat birds" to higher ground. It's been busy, needless to say.

Flooding

^We don't have a lot of room for storage, so this is how we got some of the beds out of reach of the water (we hope)^

^We are taking a chance with the piano. It was free anyway and Bob does NOT want to carry it back up the stairs after getting it down!^

^Predictions say that this will be under water by a few days from now^

^water in the pole barn^

^what should be a pasture^

^this also should all be pasture^

^water up under the gate^

^this should all be dry ground^

This is pretty much how it's been for 2+ months. We will post again in the next few days as things change enough to see a difference.

The Great Flood

We experienced our first flood damage today. Went out to do chores this morning, and the water hydrants didn't work. Took the cover off the well and it has water in it over the pressure switch. The switch was fried, so I went to town to get a sump pump to get the water out. Of course, the water table is so high it's coming back in shortly after I get it pumped out. On Sunday, the kids took the canoe out and canoed over the fence in the pasture we call our West Point and out into the neighbor's wheat field. We now have lakefront property! The river is supposed to continue to rise and crest on Sunday.

Bathroom update/rollover accident

The bathroom is coming along. Everything is operational, and the taping/mudding is half complete.

Back when the toilet was in the middle of the room with no nearby wall to hang the toilet paper on, I designed this deluxe toilet paper holder. Alas, now there's a wall beside the toilet and no more need for this snazzy invention. How sad. Perhaps I should patent it and sell it on Ebay...

While I was mudding this morning, Courtney came running downstairs saying that someone had just rolled their vehicle in our front yard. We had a bad storm last night, and the roads are still icy, so I thought maybe someone had just slid off the road into our ditch. But no, a guy had in fact rolled his jeep into our front yard. Fortunately, he was OK.

Basement bathroom project

OK, so I could have closed the lid before I took the "before" picture...but the plumbing in the downstairs bathroom was interesting to say the least. The toilet was plumbed in the middle of the room, and the drain for the shower was centered on the toilet and less than 2 feet away(it's under the yellow chair), such that you had to step over the toilet or squeeze between the toilet and shower to get in. There was no plumbing for a sink. So first I moved the wall behind the toilet back about 16 inches to make room for a vanity beside the shower. Then I rented a small jack hammer and hammered out trenches in the concrete so I could move the toilet back and away from the shower, extend the shower drain back for the vanity and connect a new shower drain. It's a fairly cozy bathroom, but now at least you can wash your hands!


The way the room looked before I started.

New walls installed and new concrete in the trenches

Toilet reinstalled and operational, shower set in place.