This picture of my basement has nothing to do with my Bucktown Garden other than to illustrate how much rain we received Friday night.  Reports are saying we got 7 inches -- an all time record.  The water was a few inches lower than the all time record flood for me living here.  The last time the water  got higher than this was in 1997.  The furnace is tough (Weil Mclein)  and can make it through.  My new hot water heaters have new fangled safety electronic starters that are almost impossible to restart after a flood knocks them out.  Looks like I'm in for a few days of cold showers and fun disassembling and reassembling hot water heaters.

There is no way to stop this kind of flooding since it comes from underneath the building.  The water table has to go where the water table wants to go.   Since the plants on the rooftops are in well drained potting mix, I might have to water tonight -- ughhhh!