I'm not too quick on the uptake sometimes.
It's been relatively dry here in southwestern Pennyslvania these past few days. Cloudy and cool, but no rain.
So I'm not sure why it made no impression that for several days I've had a steady drip, drip, drip, from the downspout that feeds my rain barrel. It's been so persistent it's left a greenish algae slick on the wooden barrel's top.
And why did I not think it alarming or unusual when, the last time it rained hard, the gutter on the west side of my back porch was overflowing? It was raining hard, that's what I figured. When there's more water than the system can take, overflows happen.
Anyway, I had plenty of water in the rain barrel-- until I used most of it the past few days watering the crucifers, tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables I've just planted.
So when it started to rain about an hour and a half ago, leaving aside the fact that I'd never gotten out to mulch up the rest of last year's leaves for the pepper and cucumber bed, I was very glad. Hurray! drinks all round for the grass and the plants and a refill for my rain barrel!
Or not. Kept waiting for the water to come gushing down the spout, and nothing was happening. The deluge got harder. Still nothing much into the barrel.
But oh! off that west porch gutter! Floods! waterfalls! inundations! tidal waves!
Uh, Kate? Ever occur to you that something up there might be-- is-- blocked?
Whatever's gotten stuck, it's underneath the wire gutter guard. A view out the third floor window tells me the guard is intact.
And by knocking as far as I can up the downspout, I've determined that it's clear, towards the bottom, at least.
Oh, fun. This means a trip out on the roof. Adventures! I've never done that before. I've got a handy window for it, but it'll need to wait till things dry out again. And until I can draft a spotter. Life's interesting enough without me breaking my neck falling off the top of the back porch.
No comments:
Post a Comment