Of Rain and Sump Pumps

I'm gonna take a break from bitching about what a dumbass Obama is. So here's the local story of the day. Had about 6 inches of rain over the past 24 hours (through 3pm CDT Sunday). And we got a little clog in the piping. Specifically (for my old pals in Texas who don't have basements), there's a sump pump in the basement that pumps the water (that collects under the house) outside and away from the house. Now the away part is important...if you're just dumping the water outside the basement alongside the foundation, you're just feeding it back under the house. So we have a nice drain that runs underground to the storm sewer out front, there being about a 6-foot drop from the front of the house to the street.

'Cept we went outside after the rain, and the drain pipe is clogged. So the water that's being pumped out through the white PVC is backing up out of the green pipe there, and going back under the house (and making about a foot-deep pool of water against the foundation). Not so good.

So, we spent the better part of 5 hours out there clearing a spot for the collected water to drain, then sawing off the old PVC, and putting a temp flex hose to the street. The plumber will be here tomorrow; can't interrupt them on a Sunday, ya know. Grrrr.

Anyway, here are the pics. Sucks to be knee-deep in muck and mud, but at least it was clean water and not the sewer pipe. Notice no leaves yet on the tree there. They're budding out, but no leaves anywhere up here yet.




I'll bitch about Obama tomorrow.