I made a very slow start to the day.

My main intention was to bring out some metal sheeting for the gable covering and to perform some internal work if it was raining.

I noticed some flooding on the creek side of the building. It was very fortunate that Ian and I set up proper gluts for the 4 back doors, a couple of weeks ago. If we had not done this then their feet would have been soaking in water

I decided that it must be time to do something about the non functioning pump sump just outside the garage doors.

This had not been working for several years but the weather had been so dry, that the underground stream water level had dropped and it was not a problem.

We had just had several days of intense rain and this had brought the issue to a head.

First I cleared away the pile of timber over the sump,

Next I painfully levered up the two steel hatch covers - the hinges were very stiff.

Fortunately the pump is plumbed in with a barrel connector so it was easy to remove the pump and test it up at grand level.

Not a peep out of it so obviously time for a replacement.

I knew that Ian had a surplus pump that he would be willing to sell so I attempted to contact him.

Unfortunately he was not answering (turns out he was creating firewood with his log splitter).

I left quite a few messages and decided to borrow the pump I use on the computer barn.

I travelled home to fetch this and just after I had pulled it out of its pumping pit, Ian called me.

I put it back in place and popped around to Ian to pick up his pump and then back to Wooroloo.

Once out on site I lashed up a temporary connection and pipeline to pump out the flooded area.

While this was happening I completed removing the old pump from the sump and cleaned up a few pieces to be transferred to the new pump.

When I fired up the new pump, I was pleased to find that the entire pipeline was clear and working well.

The sump was full to the top but the level fell rather quickly once the pump was started.

There are currently 4 ground water feeds in to the side of the pump and once the level fell below these, they started to run copiously.

4 hours later they were still running - so an immense amount of ground water has been stored.

I started to wonder if we had a leak in our water feed - I checked the water metere but it was not moving at all - so I have to discount that as a cause.