Aftermath

The reconnaissance following flooding is always enlightening. Yesterday's (Friday's) reconnaissance was no different.

Friday, after the Flood

[Yes, I got cute. Failing in an attempt to travel back in time to re-take the "after flood" photo, I kluged together my own inept version of a panorama. Fortunately, I need not do that for the remaining photos in this posting.]

Friday, sump lid missing

The first thing I must rectify is the loss of the lid to my eave trough downspout sump at the farthest reach of the real back yard (as opposed to the far back which is actually drainage easement). The sad thing is that I had replaced the sump lid only a few weeks ago. [In mowing, the older lid had collapsed as the large, right rear tire passed over the center of it. That's probably the fastest I had moved in 50-60 years, advancing the hand controls to speed passage so as not to give the mower time to settle into the embarrassing position of being hung up with one wheel below ground level.]

Large Long Log as Flotsam

Large Short Log as Flotsam

Broken Limbs in umbrella Catalpa

I shall not bother posting photos showing small things such as the pattern of the grass swooping downstream-ward or the small aggregates of flotsam (including paper, plastic, and smallish tree limbs), and such. Things did not settle out too badly. 

In the past, the water has come at least 10' nearer the house (this time, the closest approach was about 20' beyond the edge of the patio which is, itself, 20' from the house) and I've been left with large piles of flotsam - much of which was too large for me to move by myself. This time, I can probably roll the short log after it dries out, and I can probably pivot the long one. They will take a while to dry out which is good because we are now having a 3-4-day heat wave up to 100 degrees F, perhaps, with humidity to match. I cannot do that.

As part of last Friday evening's newscast, were shown videos from High Park - in Derby. It is located about one mile from here, as the crow flies, and is the source of some of the water that comes to me during flooding, via the tributary that joins Spring Creek at Adam and Kristi's lot, next door upstream from me. One year I decided that the park was the source of the dozens of (empty) single-serving liquor bottles I found among the flotsam. Ye-hah!

Saturday: I arrived at Lowe's shortly after their 7am opening, to purchase a new sump lid. That open hole was a real hazard, but not now. It took me about 30 minutes to clean the grass and mud from around the sump and woman handle the lid to get it into the opening and turned enough to engage the locking tabs. Whew! While buying the lid I also bought a new cover for the exhaust end of the duct leading from one of the eave trough downspouts, underground to exhaust at the street curb. The previous cover had been damaged when I first mowed over it. The lid flipped up enough that the mower blade took a chunk out of it. That cover has been replaced several times as the down-gushing rainwater dislodged it and it washed down the street into the sewer. (Not so much, anymore, as I had four downspouts added to the 4-downspout drainage system. As the new downspouts do not empty into underground ducting, the water pressure of the existing underground ducts is reduced.

New sump lid installed and "locked"

Old, damaged curbside effluent cover (7" D) removed

Some photos that have been overlooked in previous postings:

Glorious display of daylilies

Although I am not a big fan of daylilies, I do enjoy Stella del Oro and have, for some years, had a small planting of them. Five-ten years ago, I added a couple of Ruby Stella plants. It turned out they are taller than the Stella del Oro, but not quite as tall as standard daylilies. At any rate, even though they are not my favorites, they are putting on a great show, this year, so I wanted to show them off. Maybe I'll keep them. 

Glorious display of a single sunflower blossom

That is what one gets when she does not bake sunflower seeds prior to putting them out for the birds: sunflower plants.