We had some heavy rains overnight which left everything pretty wet and muddy this morning. Today was the first one that John didn't have to work for either JD or Matt and, since we couldn't tackle any outside jobs, we decided this would be a good day to work in the basement.

John and I cleared off the shelves, sorted through all the storage boxes, and found there was quite a bit of stuff we could move out of the basement. While I continued working on organizing the shelving with things to be stored in the basement, John installed the new sump pump he bought a week ago. The underground water table is so high from all the rain we've had, the pump runs quite a bit. When the water is pumped out of the sump hole, you can hear the water rushing back in to fill it again. Rains are in the forecast for much of this week, so I think it'll be quite some time before the pump stops running.

Joanne came to the shop this afternoon to help with the staining and brought the kids with her. John and I were able to spend a little time visiting with them while they played in the yard. I found a very pretty Christmas box while cleaning out the basement and thought it would be a good one for Jenni to store scrape-booking stickers. When I showed it to her, she thought the exact same thing--the box now has a new home and I have one less item in the basement.

After such a busy day and many, many, trips up and down the cellar steps, we spent a restful evening watching a little TV and working on the computer. Matt called, John's vacation lasted only one day--he'll be helping Matt tomorrow if it doesn't rain.