Flood!

A week ago Monday I headed up to the barn to check on my pregnant girl Delta. She had bagged up and it appeared that she was close to foaling. As usual though, she was munching hay, very content and as big as a house. No baby. Since it was 5:30 am, and Jim was still asleep, I walked towards the office planning to catch up on e-mail. As I approached the office I noticed a reflection of light off of the cement stoop in front of the office. That was interesting as there were no lights on, although there was a crescent moon. My mind was taking this in as I approached the stoop and I think the conversation in my brain was along the lines of "That's interesting...how can there be a reflection off of dull cement?" It dawned on me that it was ICE! Where in the hell did ice come from? Sure, it was cold, in the 20's, but there had been no precipitation overnight. By this time I was at the stoop. I heard a gushing sound from inside the office. I carefully stepped on the ice and opened the office door. Now, while this "flood" was not of Biblical proportions, it was bad enough - as in four inches of water rushing out of the door! My first reaction was to grab the computer tower, which was sitting in it's spot next to the desk on the floor. The tower, phone jack, router and power surge protector where absolutely everything was plugged in were all under water. Next job was to try and cut the water off outside. I ran to the truck and got a hammer and was able to pull the top off of the PVC pipe where the shut off valve is. I could not turn the valve off, so I ran back inside and slogged through the water and was able to shut off the valve under the sink where the water was coming out as if from a garden hose. I then ran to the house and asked Jim (OK, screamed at Jim) to come to the office and see if he could shut off the outside water valve. He got dressed (bitching the whole time) and got the valve shut off. He then walked up to the office and proceeded to have his feet slip out from under him backwards due to the ice. I thought that he had hit his face, and I must admit that I never saw anyone fall on ice that way before. He landed on his elbow and was fine, but this now forced me to run to my truck - again - and grab the salt that I had in the back of the truck for just this reason and pour salt all over the stoop. I would like to interject that I DO NOT run - anywhere, anytime unless something is running after me to eat me. Never have and sure don't do it now! The ice was about three inches thick and the salt didn't start to thaw it until much later in the day. Removing furniture, boxes of record albums (yes, some of us have held on to these), CD's books and all sorts of other things that were in the office became a feat that would make a tightrope walker's job look easy. Two people carrying bookshelves and filing cabinets while walking on ice is a very humerous sight I am sure, but I was in no mood to appreciate the humor - AT ALL! Once Susan, Eddie and BillyJoe got to work, we all were taking things out of the office and laying them on the ground, putting them in the other cabins and just generally making a huge mess of things. 10 hours later I had things drying out on the floor in the office, rugs hung up on the railings of the other cabins and had thrown out framed artwork, books and other items that could not be salvaged. The couple of hundred donkey and mule figurines (OK, there may be more), that adorned the bookshelves were all packed up and are in the shop.

I would like to point out that the heat was on in the office. We had just been through two weeks of below freezing temperatures and the office had made it through as one of the few buildings on the farm that had not developed a leak. What happened? I don't have a clue, but the pipes burst under the sink and in the wall between the shower and the toilet, so our plumber had a grand ol' time tearing things out and replacing pipes. Needless to say he does not clean up after himself, so I think that by the time it was all over if I had just sat down and cried that it would have been well-deserved, but that didn't happen:-) My computer was in the shop for over a week (after I asked them to have the parts overnighted, but that is another story), but is now back home. A new table was purchased yesterday before bringing the computer home so that it can have a new place of honor on a table to mitigate a future flood - as long as it doesn't get over two feet deep!