The snow is starting to melt rapidly and that means more water in the ground (obviously).  Signs of Spring starting to show through at last. We have some snowdrops showing in part of a flowerbed.  

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We live on top of a hill, but underneath ground is a pan of limestone (or some such rock) which holds the water and that means the water level creeps up under the house.  The concrete floor has cracks in and the water seeps through, giving you a flooded basement. To try and stop this the builder fits a drainage ring around the house and there is an outflow pipe into a ditch at the end of the property. But when the ground is waterlogged even that cannot take the water away fast enough.

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To stop the basement flooding there is a Sump Pump fitted in a hole cut in the concrete floor. It starts pumping water as soon as it seeps through the ground into the small bucket sized pit (sump). We have a pedestal type (wow now you are impressed I can tell)

Yesterday our pump started up and it is currently runing every three minutes (24 hours a day), draining the sump! 

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Now I am praying it doesn't breakdown because I don't have a back up pump (yet). I feel a trip to Canadian Tire coming on (for those of you who don't know that is my favourite store, what they don't sell isn't worth buying).