Insane

We managed to hold off the water on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. It was pretty scary though. We laid another row of sandbags at approximately 11:00 pm (in the dark, in the rain/snow). The water was rising rapidly at about ¾ of an inch every ½ hr. Insane! At that point, we had done everything that we could do. After several phone calls to my brother in Germany, we made the conscious decision to leave the house and climb to higher, safer ground. During daylight hours it was scary, but by darkness it was downright frightening. We couldn' see what was coming at us.

We waded out of there in 2 ft of icy water and a snow storm – saying prayers that when we returned the next morning, the main floor would be dry. Sleep didn’t come easily to any of us. We bunked down in the office of the local elevator – which was the communities flood control center.

Marna and I made the decision to go back to the house early the next morning to check on how it fared the night. We again waded through 2ft to water/ice and we were much relieved to find the main floor dry. The water had not risen much more during the night, slowed by the freezing temperature. Praise God!

To my dismay however was the fact that there was water seepage through the sandbags in the garage. The water was 5 inches from getting inside the mechanical room and up to the last step up in to the main floor of the house. We didn’t have any more sandbags with which to work with and even if we did, the sand we had was frozen and surrounded by 2 ft of water. We had to leave and head back to the elevator to call in reinforcements. Bless the friends and neighbors.

One young man, Lucas, had his basement full of water which was within an inch of flooding the main floor. Yet he was there helping us out and spearheading the flood fight in the community. When the water went over the road and flooded his house he said, “my place may be gone, but maybe it will help save three other homes.” I choked up on that one. Another neighbor lent us a brand new sump-pump that he had on order (and had just arrived in town) to pump out the water from the newly sandbagged area by the mechanical room. That’s the northern mentality for you – neighbors helping neighbors. No questions asked other than, “what do you need” or “what can I do to help you.”

There wasn't much else to do other than pray - which we all did.

As of today, the cold weather has slowed down the flow of water. The water is receding from around my brother's home - which we are all thankful for. However, with the cold weather comes another thaw. And with that thaw, comes more overland flooding and the potential for ice jams on the rivers and streams. The corps is starting water releases from the two dams surrounding our city - which of course means that the river levels will be rising downstream. Great, just great! We dodged a bullet on Tuesday and Wednesday, but it isn't over by a long stretch.

Fargo just received word that the dike system they built to handle a 41ft crest will probably not protect them - as they updated the crest levels to 43ft. Evacuations are being ordered for areas of Fargo as the dikes will almost certainly fail.

I've never heard of this being done, but the President has declared the whole state a disaster area. Un-flipping-believable. Insane!

This winter/spring will go down as one of the worst in history - certainly rivaling that of 66/67, 69, 79, and 97.

Say our prayers people - and strap yourselves in, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

I hope it is enough......

Well, it has been a day and a half. We were in a holding pattern until around 11:00am - trying to decide if we should, or shouldn't sandbag. I was pushing for sandbagging as I'm all about being proactive rather than reactive.

We finally made the decision to go for it and started filling sandbags. We had about 200 filled when reinforcements arrived from Terry's worksite. Awesome people! My brother was calling every so often to see how we were doing and to check and make sure things were going alright. I felt so sorry for him when I spoke to him. He's in Germany on business and will not be home until Friday.

We filled 2000 bags and we have another 2000 (hopefully) on reserve. They are sitting at the local elevator - which is flood central for other residents of Adrian who are in the same boat.

I made a trip to Jamestown to pick up plugs for the toilets and drains. I'm making a mental note to make sure that I thank our good friend Neil for coming in to his plumbing shop after hours when he was helping a friend sandbag as well. Now, when I get back with these wonderful plugs (so the crude doesn't come up from the sewer) everyone left. I was kinda hoping that they would still be here ...cuz what do I do now??? I am not plumber at all.

I am going to try and go to work tomorrow albeit not at 7am (my normal time). Of course, it all depends on whether the water level has come up and if we need to lay another layer of bags on top of what we already have.

I'm tired, I'm sore, and nervouse. The water has about 2 ft to go until it hits the deck of the house.

i won't be getting a lot of sleep tonight - we'll be checking the river levels all night long I'm sorry.

Well, goodnight....for now.

No Fail Potroast

Place 1 large beef roast in roasting pan.
Place 2 small beef roast in roasting pan.
Stick in oven, crank up the heat.

When small roast is burnt, the large roast is ready to eat!

MY kind of cooking instructions!

Monday, Monday...

I made it through Monday! (Does happy dance here!).

I am typically alright with going to work on Mondays, but it seems that the longer the winter drags on, the less enthused I am about getting back in to the grind of another work week. I love my job, don't get me wrong...it's just that sometimes the people wear a little bit on my nerves. The COS said, "remember, thick skin." To which I promptly replied, "Give me a break! It's Monday....I'll develop thick skin tomorrow!" He wasn't amused. For that matter, neither was I. (shrugs)

At least the sun is shining and it was a toasty 45 today! Rock on! I have spring fever sooooo bad right now. It is in sight! IF we can manage to escape any snowstorms or rainstorms in the next three weeks, I think we'll be home free! I am choosing to ignore the peeps that say that there is another major storm headed our direction. I want to know how the bleepin heck they can predict where it's going to land when it is still out in the ocean?? Nope...I'm stickin to my guns...Spring is Here!

Some interesting news - and a dilemma for one of my nieces. NDSU is playing KU on Friday. My niece Karen received her Masters from KU. Karen, Joan, AND Matt graduated from NDSU. Hmmmmm. ~L~ I texted Karen (yes! I KNOW HOW TO TEXT! Sheeeesh!) last night to see who she was going to cheer for. She replied, "me and Mom are going to cheer for KU, Joan and Matt are going for NDSU. You can cheer 1/2 and 1/2." Absolutely! GO ND/KU!! I spoke with Peg today and she said that she was taking Friday off to watch the game. I KNOW better than to call her, stop over, or even attempt to interrupt her during a KU game - let alone one that has KU and ND playing each other. Nope, I'm sitting this one out and will check the score from the safety of my work cubicle! :-)

Roads are pretty crappy around here. I'm perpetually locked in to 4-wheel drive. That's okay though. I'll take mud over snowstorms any day! T isn't so happy though. We start the calving season in a few weeks and we have nowhere for the little guys to land. He's spent the last three days shoveling out two of our calving pastures hoping that they'll be dry enough for the mothers to drop their calves on dry ground rather than in a slop hole. You always have to worry about pneumonia, scours, etc. when it's this wet and damp outside. Every year it gets tougher and tougher.

My brother is in Germany for two weeks. Before he left he sent me pictures of where he lives with the caption "this snow + heat= flood." Yikes. I woke up this morning to the news that this area was in a flood alert. I told him to tell my sister-in-law that if she needs me for sandbagging, to call me asap!

Well, no other news....I made it through a Monday. Life is good! ~L~

Catch up with you all later on.