100 Posts in 100 Days: Day 61
Mar. 1st, 2012 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zolaMy back hurts.
Yesterday we got biblical rains, very unexpectedly. They did expect rain, they expected perhaps as much as an 3/4 of an inch. I believe we ended up getting something more like three inches. They didn't even have a chance to issue a flood watch--we went directly to flood warning.
When I went outside, the drain in the driveway was blocked and there was water flowing out from under the house. There was a lull in-between showers at that point, so I hurried to unblock the drain and then fixed what I thought was causing the water problem under the house--we have a ditch that runs off the hill that we have been in the process of straightening out, and there's a ditch that joins it that's intended to allow drips from the roof to flow away from the house.
I cleared that out and the water stopped coming out from under the house promptly thereafter.
Later on, it started pouring again and I saw water coming out from under the house. Ben and I went to fix the ditch again, but oddly, it seemed pretty much fine--there was a bit of water washing back, but nothing a quick rake didn't fix.
So I went to the back of the house to check it, and discovered such massive quantities of water running in a new spot on the hill that the ditch couldn't handle it and it was all washing under the house.
Ben cleared the ditch and I attacked the bad spot with a shovel. But why was the water running down that part of the hill when the channel should have been directing it completely away from the house?
Took the hoe and climbed way up on the hill, and discovered parts of the channel were blocked up and the water was spilling out of it and just running straight down the hill. Got it unblocked, Ben stayed at the bottom to clear any debris that came down. There was still some overflow, but at a much more sedate pace that the ditch could easily handled.
Crisis averted, I came back down the hill and then noticed that the other ditch was overflowing into the driveway. At this point my back was getting painful, but I carefully cleaned out the pipe. Crisis two averted.
Went in and cleaned up. Sat down with the intent of getting some work done. At this point, my back started to lock up. *sigh*
I ended up taking a muscle relaxer to stop the spasms and got crap-all done for the rest of the day because the muscle relaxer makes me dopey and sleepy. It's already much improved today, I have the heating pad to help keep it loose and I'll do some gentle stretching to keep it from cramping up. I suspect the worst of it will be a distant memory tomorrow.
Still, it's ironic because about a month ago I started with the exercise bike to build up my legs for the current yard work season, but it never occurred to me that I should do some exercises to re-strengthen my back muscles. Of course, under normal circumstances I wouldn't have been frantically trying to clear three ditches in a half an hour, and the building up would have occurred naturally... ah well. If this is the worst that happens, I'm doing just fine.
Yesterday we got biblical rains, very unexpectedly. They did expect rain, they expected perhaps as much as an 3/4 of an inch. I believe we ended up getting something more like three inches. They didn't even have a chance to issue a flood watch--we went directly to flood warning.
When I went outside, the drain in the driveway was blocked and there was water flowing out from under the house. There was a lull in-between showers at that point, so I hurried to unblock the drain and then fixed what I thought was causing the water problem under the house--we have a ditch that runs off the hill that we have been in the process of straightening out, and there's a ditch that joins it that's intended to allow drips from the roof to flow away from the house.
I cleared that out and the water stopped coming out from under the house promptly thereafter.
Later on, it started pouring again and I saw water coming out from under the house. Ben and I went to fix the ditch again, but oddly, it seemed pretty much fine--there was a bit of water washing back, but nothing a quick rake didn't fix.
So I went to the back of the house to check it, and discovered such massive quantities of water running in a new spot on the hill that the ditch couldn't handle it and it was all washing under the house.
Ben cleared the ditch and I attacked the bad spot with a shovel. But why was the water running down that part of the hill when the channel should have been directing it completely away from the house?
Took the hoe and climbed way up on the hill, and discovered parts of the channel were blocked up and the water was spilling out of it and just running straight down the hill. Got it unblocked, Ben stayed at the bottom to clear any debris that came down. There was still some overflow, but at a much more sedate pace that the ditch could easily handled.
Crisis averted, I came back down the hill and then noticed that the other ditch was overflowing into the driveway. At this point my back was getting painful, but I carefully cleaned out the pipe. Crisis two averted.
Went in and cleaned up. Sat down with the intent of getting some work done. At this point, my back started to lock up. *sigh*
I ended up taking a muscle relaxer to stop the spasms and got crap-all done for the rest of the day because the muscle relaxer makes me dopey and sleepy. It's already much improved today, I have the heating pad to help keep it loose and I'll do some gentle stretching to keep it from cramping up. I suspect the worst of it will be a distant memory tomorrow.
Still, it's ironic because about a month ago I started with the exercise bike to build up my legs for the current yard work season, but it never occurred to me that I should do some exercises to re-strengthen my back muscles. Of course, under normal circumstances I wouldn't have been frantically trying to clear three ditches in a half an hour, and the building up would have occurred naturally... ah well. If this is the worst that happens, I'm doing just fine.
