Let The Clean up begin

 Rick's mom's basement after the flood

 The Clean up crew

 Carleton College flood water in the Stadium and West Gym

So the flood had ended for us in southern MN but now all the clean up has started. Rick and Christa and a whole bunch of others went down to New Richland on Sunday and helped his mom clean out her basement and garage. I had to work so I could not go.  It was pretty bad. They got most of the work done in one day so that is good. She cannot move in until she gets a new water heater and furnace. Carleton also got flooded. The West Gym had about a foot of water in it and the Stadium had even more water in it. The whole football field was flooded. It is pretty sad to see what everyone has lost. We were very lucky to not get any water in our basement.
This weekend Rick and I are going camping and biking. I cannot wait. It will be so nice to get away again! It is going to be cold at night, down in the 30's. It is a good thing we have a heater in the camper. Cassie is going to watch Dexter for me. Dexter loves Cassie almost as much as Cassie loves Dexter. I have to pull him from her, she always wants to keep him.
Work today has been busy. I had a homeless guy on campus today that I had to escort off. He was creepy. I also had a medical. It makes the day go by fast when it is busy. Good thing because I am tired today.
Last night I cut the lawn after work. It is so full of leaves, we are going to have rack them  up. I guess that is the price we have to pay for having so many trees.
Later Sharon

And then the flood came.....

we now have lake front property

The creek runs beside our house. 24 hours ago it had less then an inch of water in it.



This in Rick's Mom's garage in New Richland



The back of the garage

Looking out the driveway at Rick's mom's house in New Richland

So now that we have the basement done we are getting a flood. We have had 8 inches of rain in Waseca in the last 24 hours. All of Waseca county is under water. Rick's mom lives in New Richland and it is even worse there. I sure hope the rain stops soon.

Later Sharon

The Basement is done!!!

We have been working our asses off and we have finally got the basement done! It is so nice to be able to have someplace that is finished. We only have to put a couple more lights up and few other minor things and we can call it good. We even took a couple of nights off and actually watched two movies. It was nice. I even got to work out this morning . I am very happy to have my workout stuff and back.

OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!

Dexter thought it would be fun to get into some prickers today. Guess who is getting a hair cut tonight!

I see the light.......

This is the wall in the basement family room that had all the water damage and need to be pushed back out.
The basement family room before pictures


New window
Sheetrock on the walls
View of the hallway in the basement


Wall with boxcar siding on
The painting is all done


Putting in the floor


We are almost there!!!! We should finally have the basement pretty much done this week. We have been working our asses off to get it done. I have left work early several days this week so we could work on it. Yesterday we started to put the floor down at 4:00 and got most of the family room done. Rick is going to try and get it finished today. Then we need to get the trim on and the doors. Well we can't put the doors on yet because I STILL do not have them done! I just have had so many other things to do! We should be able to move stuff in by the end of the week. I will post some pictures as we get it done.
I have been super busy at work this week because the students are back. Makes the day go by faster.
I babysat Liam and Josie on Tue. and Wed. evening. On Wed. I gave Josie her supper and she decided that she would take her plate and dump it all over the table and floor because she wanted a cookie! Needless to say she did not get a cookie. After I got that all cleaned up Liam spilled his milk all over the table and floor. Good thing we don't have the kitchen done yet!
This is all I have time to post today...busy, busy, busy
Later Sharon

The leaves are falling!

Dexter and I are enjoying the beautiful day outside. I even was able to find my fall decorations and get them out.

“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.”-Ashley Smith

Yesterday we had to go to our second home, Menards. These are a couple of pictures I took on the way back to our real home.

Falling apart.......

Poor Dexter he just wants us to be done! He is so dirty because he keep lying down in all the construction dust. I have to give him a bath at least once a week. Good thing he likes baths.
Ricks Shop almost done
Putting up the lights
Before he started this is what it looked like. It had wall paper on the walls but he took it off before I got the picture. He also scraped the ceilings. After he did all that he decided to take all the wall off down to the block and start over.
I know my pictures are out of order... here is another one of the shop almost done. Rick added all the electric plug because he needs them for his string making stuff.
One more picture of what it looked like before.

I don't have a picture of it all done because he still getting all the stuff organized. I will take one soon and post it.

We have been really busy working on the basement. I got all the trim boards that go around the doors all stained and ready to go. To bad I only have one door done. We have to get all of the base boards yet so I can get them done. We got the last of the old sheetrock off the walls and got all of the new stuff put up in the last few days. Rick is going to start taping tonight. We hope to be painting on Sat. Then we are going to put the wood on the east wall and then the floors will go in. Lastly we will get the trim all on. I am so excited we are almost done! With any luck we should be able to get the room all done and ready to use within a week. I cannot wait to get our weight equipment back and start using it again. I look like crap, I really need to get lifting again.

Rick had me putting screws in the sheetrock with the screw guns. I found out that there is a lot more to it then you would think. You have to have the screw in far enough but not to far. 9 times out of 10 I did it wrong. I was pretty much ready to cry by the time I was done! No more screwing up sheetrock for me.

Doing all of this work is taking a tole on our bodies. Poor Rick messed up his neck so bad that he could not move it yesterday. He went to the chiropractor yesterday and that helped some. He is going back this afternoon. Hopefully he will be able to move it normally again soon.
I still have the same issues as always. My wrist is pretty swelled up and painful but I refused to go have the surgery until we are done with all this work. My back is also a mess. Yesterday my hands were numb most of the day. I am sure it is from my back. Oh well 6 months from now when it is all done I will be fine.

We started to let Dexter sleep on the floor by our bed at night. He is doing very good. I hate to put him in his kennel again at night if we have both been at work all day.

Later Sharon