We got home on Monday, January 5th. Our plan was to be home in time for the boys to get to school, but the mountain passes across the Cascade Mountain Range were either closed or open at times. We chose to go over White Pass, which is a smaller pass, but was open...so we went for it!
It went very well...just took it nice and easy. The pass was compact snow and ice. The night before, the area got a dumping of snow so they were worried about avalanches. We made it safe and sound at home around 2pm.
We came home to melting snow on the ground. By tuesday, the snow was just about gone and on wednesday...not a trace in sight! But..... another storm was headed our way, and nice big rain storm that brought us 4" of rain in 24 hours. NICE! Our basement flooded, of course....
Dan rented a backhoe and found the problem. A couple years ago we did some landscaping and must have messed around too much with one of the drain pipes. Over the years it slowly started to crush under the weight of the soil. So we think last year, it finally gave way. Which explains the floods in our basement! Now that we have figured it out, and have big trenches dug around the house...we are nice and dry! At least I know for sure we'll get to landscaping the backyard this Spring!
School is closed today because of the floods. The Coweeman River, which is right behind the boys' schools, was above flood stage lastnight. They were afraid the levies wouldn't hold it. It held tight by the school but gave way in South Kelso where 2000+ residents had to be evacuated! We aren't out of the woods yet, they think in another day or so the water levels will be down considerably. I am sure there will be school tomorrow...maybe.... : )
So a nice welcome home, huh? Glad this happened when we were here and not when we were half way across the country!
