It's raining again

I just could not resist using this song by Supertramp as the theme for my blog. Yes, it started raining some time on Tuesday and stopped during Wednesday night. The problem was it didn't just rain - it poured down. Even my cats did not venture further than a meter from our home and stayed on the porch in the dry areas. Things would not have been so bad if.... well it happened like this.

Part I
I was at work and phoned hubby in the morning to ask what to buy for the evening meal - a usual conversation. We of course spoke about the weather, especially as a couple of weeks ago we had a lot of rain and two of our neighbour's cellars had collected a few centimeters of water. During my telephone conversation hubby said someone is at the door and I should wait a few minutes. I heard him speaking in the distance on the phone and he came back to say the neighbour had just called to say water was slowly seeping into the cellars again. Hubby was not disturbed as the last time it did not get to our cellar, but said he would have a look.

Part II
About 4.00 in the afternoon hubby called me back at work with the development of the situation. He had just spent the last hour with two other retired neighbours (they were the only ones around) scooping up the water masses in the cellar with snow shovels and driving the water into the garage where there was at least a drain for it to pour away. During the day all the cellars and the corridor to the cellars had reached a level of 3 centimeters of water. So where was the water coming from. Not only do we have cellars and a car park on this first level underground, but there are 4 hobby rooms as well for people that like to have an extra room for their pasttimes. One of these rooms has a nice big window which looks out onto a wall of fancy stones - a sort of rockery with plants in between - quite pretty really. What happened was that the rain came down in torrents and the water got trapped between the rockery and the window. Hubby said it looked like some sort of giant aquarium, just the fish were missing really. Anyhow the water built up so much that it forced its way through the edge of the window and it started pouring in. Something like the waterfalls in Schaffhausen but on a smaller scale. The water then developed into a small river flooding out the hobby room and creeping under the door into the corridor and other cellars.

Part III
The neighbour whose hobby room was flooding was luckily at home and had a pump. He then fitted up the pump and the pump started pumping the water direct from outside the window into a sink in his hobby room. The aquarium gradually disappeared and the water stopped flooding into the cellar, so for the meanwhile the flooding was reduced. There must have been hundreds of liters of water coming in - see photo of sink with water being pumped into it.

Eventually I arrived home from work and as I had to cross through the cellar corridor from the garage to get to the stairway, I decided to have a look at the damage. The floors were damp, but gradually drying out. I peeked in our cellar and saw that everything had been moved to the back as it was the front two thirds of the cellar that were under water. Other people were not so fortunate, although there is a large heating room in the cellar where damp items could be stored in the meanwhile. Hubby came downstairs to meet me in the cellar, two other neighbours were already there and another two ladies came down to join us. It was quite a party, but no-one really felt like celebrating. In the meanwhile water started pouring out of the hobby room again. By this time we were joined in the cellar by two other neighbours who had just come home from work. Hubby had a look and noticed that the hose (see picture) was no longer pumping water into the sink but had made itself independent and was pumping water onto the ground. With some wire the hose was fixed into the sink and all was well again, well almost.

Part IV
So we all started wondering why this has happened the second time. Nearby two new blocks of appartments had been built - luxury class complete with cellars, garage and nice gardens and concrete paths. They had been putting the finishing touches to the road leading to the outside parking spaces. Unfortunately when building this small road, they forgot to allow for the rain to run away. Well, actually the rain did run away, down the nice stones to the window of the hobby room in our cellars. There were many discussions and meetings of building chiefs and managers of the bulding society of our flats, with the result that the road has to been pulled up and relaid with a nice draining system on one side, the water being directed into a container leading to a draining system. All's well that ends well, well almost. At the moment when you walk through our cellar corridor you can here the gentle summing of about 10 dehydrating machines.

It has now stopped raining and the sun even came out today. The weather forecast predicted no rain at the week-end, so we all have time to clean out our cellars and throw the stuff away that got ruined by the water.

A Visit to the Farm to see the "Hedgies"

After my last visit to my friend's farm a lot has been happening, production-wise. When I arrived the first thing that met my attention was the wonderful show of sunflowers in the farm garden., although my friend told me they were not standing so upright any more.

The next step was into the farmhouse where she showed me the newest production in kittens. Some time ago she kept one of the male kittens, Diego, to become the new stud cat and he is doing his job so well that there were still 3 kittens left from the last litter aged 10 weeks who were just going to their new families. A new litter arrived a couple of weeks ago and they were laying next to mama cat in a washing basket, especially altered to fit the new babies and their mother cat. While I was there, Diego decided to join his new family in the basket. Mama cat wasn't having anything like that and hissed at Diego and lauched her paw out to drive him away. Diego decided it would be too risky to stay in the basket and left mama cat to her kittens.

The next cat that approached me was Kimberley, a white Persian with a black face. She sort of waddled around as she is now expecting kittens from Diego in a couple of weeks. It seems that Diego is so succesful with his production, that now and again he has visits from female cats to continue the Persian cat race in Switzerland. Here a a couple of photos of the latest results. The first two are from the births before last and the third shows one of the kittens of the last birth

After leaving the kittens we made our way to the chicken/guinea pig/hedgie barn, each animal being in its own pen with plenty of room to walk around in. On the way we met Bessie the labrador who had already given birth to two litters of puppies. She was again looking for a man, but my friend said enough is enough, after having 22 puppies to give away over the years, Bessie must now learn that her family days were over.

Eventually we arrived at the barn and the chickens being the noisiest inhabitants I naturally had to take a photo.

There were many hens, all having the purpose in their chicken lives of laying eggs. What a fertile place a farm is. The guinea pigs were just relaxing and not being very active and then I met the reason for my visit.

Hedgehogs are now getting very popular as pets and I heard that in the States they are quite fashionable. They are not the normal hedgehogs to be found in the fields or unfortunately on the roads at night, but the white belly hedgehogs. They are smaller than the usual hedgehog and very friendly. You can pick them up and stroke them and are basically very easy to keep. However, as a pet they do have the disadvantage that they are nocturnal creatures and not very active during the day. The hedghogs on the farm are kept under a slate slanted onto the wall for support under which they like to sleep during the day. I also read that they should have enough space to live in which is the case at my friend's farm. She has three adult "hedgies" as they are commonly known, one is white and the others more sprinkled. They are not albino, but are just known for their white bellies.

Actually the reason why I went to visit this time was to see the babies. Apparently one of the hedgehogs was expecting but you just don't notice if a hedgehog is pregnant. One morning my friend went into the barn to see how they were doing and lo and behold there were three more tiny little hedhogs, each one about 8-10 centimetres long, but complete with spines. They are together with mummy hedgehog in their enclosure in the corner where the mother has made a sort of nest for them. I naturally got the camera ready. As most animals they don't sit still and pose for photos, so if the photos are a bit shaky, blame the hedgehogs.

After leaving the "hedgies" we walked across the farm and on the way the tortoise was sunning himself in his quarters. It was a nice day and he seemed to be enjoying the outdoor life.

It was now time to say goodbye. This time I didn't visit the cows or the pigs, after all every farm has cows and pigs, but not every farm has "hedgies" of course. I almost forgot to mention I met Lady, the shi tzu dog belong to one of my friend's daughters (she has five daughters and two sons - and recently became grandmother for the first time). I always enjoy my visits to the farm, especially as I grew up in industrial London and think I saw my first corn field at the age of eight years. This is a special farm though, thanks to the interesting hobbies my friend has and the wonderful way she looks after all the different animals. Lady, the dog said take my photo as well, so here she is.