country living with a genius

We live in the country. Three acres, water from a well up the hill, septic system down the hill (good planning!), lots of natural springs in the ground, lots of wildlife running through the yard, steep driveway to the nearby county road. We get some help now with the yard spring and fall cleanups, but my husband enjoys taking care of the property, plowing in the winter and mowing in the summer.

He is, in fact, somewhat of a genius when it comes to fixings things and keeping them running. And something that has needed fixing due to its running is the connection where the well water pipe enters the foundation in the basement. Due to almost continuous rain since we returned from Florida at the end of March, the lake is at dangerously high levels and the water saturation in our already-wet yard is at 100%. The ground can't hold the water and it is seeping into the basement around the well water pipe. What to do?

The genius husband worried about it, thought about it, dreamed about it (and he claims he doesn't dream) and came up with another of his Rube Goldberg solutions:



The water comes in and drips into the first of 4 giant pails, filling pail after pail until it drips into the condensation collector from our dehumidifier. It then flows into the hose that runs across the entire length of the house to the other end of the basement, where our gravity sump pump is located. It empties out into the lower yard somewhere, far away from the house. As I said - genius!

No more trips to the basement in the middle of the night to check on the water levels. No more flooding the basement floor. No more lugging the full pails of water over to the sump pump.

Genius!