Water, water everywhere

I lived in dear old Carlisle for 6 years before getting married. I still have a good few great friends there. The floods of the weekend were upsetting to say the least. Devastatingly worse than the last time it happened. Thankfully everyone I know has dry houses, though Daves van was in over its roof. I believe there's a largely fabulous community spirit in the county with strangers helping strangers and generosity pouring out. The reality is it's not just about damp houses, there are inumerate personal stories... A heifer was washed 15 miles from its farm, it was alive and well but the farmer has still lost 4 others. Wedding and baby photographs were found strewn across fields. A flooded barber is out on the pavement with his chair; business as usual...

On Sunday, in response to Carlisles plight, Master B created an envelope and wrote "Emergency things" on the front. He was concerned for his friend Elijah, a Carlisle resident. Inside is a detailed drawing of a house built as a boat with portholes below water level (so you can see chairs etc floating past!) He added a rowing boat with a water bottle and rucksack inside... incase the house boat gets flooded!! He thought they might find it useful but didn't want to post it incase we needed it(!) He was worried that our house might flood  last night... we live on a hill, and it wasn't even raining!

Master Bs explanation of the plan:
Rowing boat at the bottom. Boat levels... portholes for viewing under water in the hull, above is the lounge with sofa and arm chair complete with cushions (and the all important rucksack), 3rd level is the bedroom with crumpled duvet and pillow on the bed (and water bottle). The top level is the steering wheel, drivers seat and periscope (and another rucksack!) The sticking up bit above the bedroom, left hand side, is a button with motor attached to be pressed incase of a big wave. The motor will propel the house boat up out of the water to jump over the wave.


x.