Power Outage: Sump Failure and Solution

On this, the 5th day without electricity, the power finally returned. In our house, we punctuate much of our daily lives with words or titles from songs, so “We Got the Power!” was our tune of the day—at least in my head ;)

As much of the Midwest, we were affected by the ice/snow storm of late January. Although it would have been nice to travel off to some place warm to wait out the storm, my husband and I consider ourselves survivalists, of a sort, and didn’t even consider leaving. Of course, the fact that my husband was bailing hundreds of gallons of water by hand out of the basement every hour for the first 24 hours of the storm meant that technically, we couldn’t leave if we wanted to prevent the inevitable flood. I have to commend my husband for never once complaining about the physical effort of bucketing that much water up and down the stairs of the basement and out into the frigid weather.

Eventually, we put on our collective thinking caps and developed a siphon system that required significantly less muscle to operate. Maybe I can get my husband to write up a more detailed set of notes in case anyone ever needs such a contraption, but the brief description follows, after this admission: Alright, we did think of the solution together, but he did all of the implementation. After thawing out a 50 foot garden hose in the bathtub, he put one end into the sump, onto which he attached a brass hose splitter through which water flow could be controlled by adjusting the stop-cock. He ran the hose up from the sump, out of the basement window, and down the yard to a level below the level of where the water was entering the house. On that end of the hose, he attached an adjustable garden sprayer. The inflow and outflow levels of the water required frequent adjustment, but—according to my husband—this was infinitely better than having to haul water by hand!

 

Introduction

About Me
Hi Everyone,

My name is Angela and I’m living La Vida Mama with my husband and two young daughters in the Midwestern U. S.: Zone 6 for you gardeners.

Although I’ve exchanged my life as a professional for my life as a professional mother, and my life as a medical student for my life as a student of marriage, parenting, and life, my sense of commitment and love of learning have only multiplied.

Before I share more personal information than you’d like to hear, I’ll just say that my early life was one of homelessness, extreme poverty, and early labor into the workforce. These experiences led me—initially—to spend somewhat carelessly, thinking I deserved a “better” life. Now, I spend carefully, knowing I deserve a better life. Thankfully, I’ve redefined “better.”

Now that I’m pushing 40 (please tell me I didn’t say that out loud), I find myself constantly striving to improve the physical, emotional, financial, and spiritual lives of my family and myself, typically through a process of extensive research, intuition, implementation, practice, and review. LivingLaVidaMama is one of the results of that process.

About LivingLaVidaMama
As a busy mom like yourselves, I have many stakes in the fire and here I hope to share with you—and learn from you—so that our paths can be a little richer.

I’ll try to stay focused on topics that interest you, like:
• living on one income,
• becoming debt-free,
• improving the health of your children—including implementing the Specific Carbohydrate Diet
• recipes—including SCD and vegetarian,
• gifted education,
• gardening and edible landscaping,
• home organization,
• do-it-yourself projects, and
• finding time for yourself.

Full Disclosure
Although I do not enjoy ads on websites and blogs, I understand that they are often necessary. I thought long and hard about whether or not to include them on my site. I decided that I would endorse only products that I use and wholeheartedly believe in. So, soon you’ll see a link for books from Amazon.com. Any book that I can’t get at my locally owned bookstore, I usually buy through Amazon. Additionally, I’m including an ad from Vita-Mix for the following reasons. I purchased one to help make the specialized food my daughter needs. I use it almost every day, sometimes 5 or 6 times a day. I truly believe it has helped her get better faster, and has helped us keep food costs down. My belief in this product prompted me to become a Vita-Mix Affiliate. What this means is that if you click on the Vita-Mix ad from my blog and you purchase a Vita-Mix, I will get a small commission. Similarly, if you purchase an Amazon book through my widget, I’ll earn a small commission. Honestly, I haven’t sold any books or Vita-Mixes yet, so I don’t know the details. However, if you’re interested, I’ll be happy to post updates about this.

About Comments
A quick note about comments: As this site is intended to uplift and encourage all who read it—and write it—comments are moderated to ensure an atmosphere of support, not criticism. If you see a factual mistake, and provide a reputable link to justify its correction, I’m happy to fix it. And remember, since kids—mine or yours—may read this blog, please submit only comments you would want your children to read ;)


Thanks for dropping by; I hope you have as much fun—and learn as much—reading Living La Vida Mama as I do writing it. To contact me, email LivingLaVidaMama at Windstream dot net.

 

About LivingLaVidaMama

My photo
Formerly, I've worked in publishing and been a medical student. Currently, I'm a freelance writer and copy editor, and full-time mom with two exceptional daughters. LivingLaVidaMama focuses on intentional frugality and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet that has dramatically improved my younger daughter's autistic-like symptoms. Contact me at MadForWriting at windstream.net