A Deluge To Point Out Problems

Sometimes the best ideas aren't as good as the initial conception. I get that sometimes in my jewelry construction or larger projects; a point at which I need to reassess the original conception and make some changes to allow for a successful piece in the end. Mother Nature caused our reassessment last night in a big way.

Yesterday's storm was preceded by this shelf cloud. That
definite line between warm and cold air is a harbinger
of major rain to follow, and it kept its promise a few hours later. 

Like the prairie states, when we get a big thunderstorm, we get a deluge. Last night we got hit with a major storm and rain just after the sun had set. In less than an hour we got more than 2-1/2 inches of rain. The wall held up, I think, (I haven't seen it yet since it's still dark), but the trenches filled with water which flooded over the patio in sheets driven by the wind. It was looking like we would flood through the basement exterior door, because the water had built up so much. DH finally went out into the pouring rain and sandbagged the back door with bags of paving foundation he had been using for his wall construction project.

This is a much larger wall cloud over the Great Plains. They're
really quite frightening to look at when you can see that
absolute line of demarcation. 

If he continues making his new walls the way he originally envisioned, this could become a common problem and that's something he'll need to take a close look at when it stops raining later this morning. He needs to figure out some type of drainage system to have in place which will help eliminate the problem of large amounts of water causing flooding as it passes over the patio. After all, part of the reason for the wall is to protect our foundation and our house. If he is causing more problems because of the new project, then we're in serious trouble.

We might need to put French drains at the bottom of the trenches and
below the patio. The yard and house have settled unevenly since it
was first built more than 50 years ago. We're doing damage control, but
need to be careful that we're not increasing the problem by trying
to fix it. 

Time for reassessment and perhaps some redesign work. I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday, I'll be in the indoor pool since we still have thunderstorms until just before noon. I'm hoping it won't be too crowded - our outdoor swimmers will know that their pool won't be open until the storms have passed so they won't show up, but our normal Thursday swimmers might which could lead to a lot of people in our smaller indoor pool.