Sewing for the Home, Grendelskin Style!

Yup, those are handmade sand bags you see!  (They are a bit like 9-foot long draft stoppers.)  We got about 10 inches of rain in the last wo days, and after 16 years in the house it had its first water failure.





I bet Martha has never made her own sandbags!







This is what the dooryard looked like on Monday, before it got bad:

And this has been my part-time workspace for the past two days:

That's my truly-cool and very huge utility sink next to the washer and dryer; the sump hose is run out through the cat door (poor Iki has has a rough couple of days too).  I am cautiously optimistic that the worst is over and so very thankful for many things, including the following:

• We maxed out at about two inches of water in the front part of the basement; the back had even less.
• My husband, whose scavenging makes me crazy except when it comes in handy, actually had a bilge pump in his workshop which we were able to rig to act as a low-volume sump pump.
• When this proved to be too low-volume for the task at hand our dentist came through with a surface sump pump for us to borrow; every hardware store in a 50-mile radius was sold out.  (I know this: I called every one and politely endured their laughter at my requests.)
• We learned something new about the construction of the house. 
• Sally's House Rule #347:  If you're going to build walls to make separate "rooms" in the basement, put the framing atop the concrete; don't pour afterwards or the wood will get saturated in a major storm and introduce water into the home. 
• My kids were both willing and able to help with using the wet vac and were cheerful about our absence, hastily-cobbled-together suppers and chronically wet shoes.
• I had several yards of what-the-heck-is-THAT-and-why-did-I-buy-it?!? fabric lying around, and a hefty new needle for the sewing machine.  And I had several buckets of just-collected road-sand with which to fill the bags (I recycle it for use under the inflatable pool every summer).
• And finally - you know how folks are always talking about how they really should clean up the basement?  Well, since we have to water-seal all those funky spots, we'll have to go through all that "stuff" as a matter of course!  And the floor is really clean.