Catching up..

I have heat! It turns out that the furnace works just fine, but the previous owner hadn't bothered to turn on the gas - which frankly doesn't surprise me, she seemed like a total ditz.

My basement floods every time it rains. I need to fix the gutters in the back, but I don't think thats the entire problem.. I have someone from the city coming out the give me advice on disconnecting the downspouts (pipes that go to the storm drains/sewer -- in portland they're kinda one in the same, but not really.. the Willamette River is the dumping ground for whatever excess water/sewage the heavy rains bring in. Then again, doesn't Biscayne Bay get dumped (no pun intended) in all the time?

So next Wednesday, the city expert will come out and help me decide what the best strategy would be for me to disconnect my non-functional gutters from the downspouts & save the river. I bet you're thinking, "Now Scott, if you already have water in your basement when it rains - why do you want more rainwater seeping into the ground?" I'll tell you why. There are different strategies that the natives use to deal with all the rain - French drains (A French drain or land drain is a ditch filled with gravel, rock that redirects surface and ground water away from an area. French drains are common drainage systems, primarily used to prevent ground and surface water from penetrating or damaging building foundations), Dry wells (Simple dry wells consist of a pit filled with gravel, riprap, rubble, or other debris. Such pits resist collapse, but do not have much storage capacity because their interior volume is mostly filled by stone. A more advanced dry well defines a large interior storage volume by a reinforced concrete cylinder with perforated sides and bottom), Rain gardens, Lakes, moats, etc.. This expert will hopefully be able to analyze my soil content, lot grading, underground springwater flow and be able to recommend a solution for me. Right now, I've got nothing but time & ideas.. and water.

I'd really like to build french drains that run to a primary rain garden and have a drywell that can handle the excess runoff .. Ecohydrology rocks (pun intended).

We had 26" of snow on Mt. Hood last week! That all changed with the sudden nice weather we've had this week - that's ok, we'll get more. I love fall here.

Stay tuned..