Years ago when we bought the house Springside Hall on Lake Ave East the basement floor was bedrock that was painted over with orange paint. Several wooden tree logs held up the first floor in the basement. Every Spring 2 feet of water would flood the basement when the river waters were high.
Seeing that the fridge was down there when we bought it– it wasn’t really handy at all in the Spring. So the basement was finished- except the cistern we dug out and a small tool room where the oil furnace used to be. That same small room still has the original bedrock floor as well as the cistern.
A sump pump was put in so we could control the Spring run off and no longer is our basement Seaworld in April.
There is a brook at the bottom of the hill on Lisgar and Argyle Street which I have talked about before and it runs behind Jennifer Fenwick Irwin’s home on Argyle. It used to flow down the back of my property. There was once a bridge at Beckwith Street and Lake Ave East– but my question is- where does this water originate from?
I was told it came down from the Gatineau’s but that seems a tad far fetched.
Actually there is a creek which begins under the Coleman Street Tim Horton’s and travels down Rochester Street under my house and down to Lisgar and then flows over to the arena and empties out out Shi* Creek. In the old days people on Rochester Street would open their basement windows to let the water flow through.. or so I have been told LOL
Did You Know we had a %^&* Creek in Carleton Place?
Feeling Groovy by the Lake Ave East Bridge
RELATED READING- Springside Hall
Glory Days in Carleton Place– Linda Seccaspina
Time Capsule in the ‘Hi Diddle Day’ House?
Sometimes When You Least Expect it– The Dunlop Issue
The Spirits Are Alive and Well
Feeling Groovy by the Lake Ave East Bridge
October 13, 1977 George W. Raeburn of Lake Ave East— Artist and C. P. R. Man
RELATED READING-Sky Pilots
Glen Isle and Appleton by Air-The Sky Pilots of Carleton Place
The Spirit of Carleton Place -Shotgun with the Sky Pilots of Carleton Place PT.1
Saturday in Carleton Place Photographed by our Sky Pilots Bill and Carole Flint
Aerial Shots of Carleton Place Cares -Carole and Bill Flint – Sky Pilots of Carleton Place
Tales from Arklan Island–Odds and Ends
Tales From Arklan Island –The Midnight Heist
So What Happened Down at the Power Plant One Dark and Stormy Night?
Aerial Images of the Old Cold War Barracks Fire-Carole and Bill Flint
Today We Need Your Help!— Come Hungry!
lindaseccaspina 
Ahhhh the wonders of gravity! As rain/snow/run off is absorbed into the ground, it doesn’t just move in a downward direction, gravity also pulls it downhill. The topography of your place suggests water would move between the pockets and layers of the stoney bedrock on its way downhill towards the river. As more water builds up the pressure in those layers increases causing the water to follow a path of least resistance, pushing it back upwards where it can, even if that means your basement. That floating depth of running water in the bedrock is sometimes called the “water table” and in times of high volume (spring plus rain) the water will be higher and more likely to show up in your house, while in times of low volume (late summer) the same amount of rain may not even make a damp spot in your house. A cistern was often used as a means of capturing and containing water inside the home so that going out to a yard pump and getting water from the well could be avoided in wintertime. Because we live on the Canadian Shield, lots of little ‘artesian’ wells spring up between the rocks and building a home over top of one and catching it into a cistern meant fresh running water all year long. They’re very common in Easter Ontario but also a dead giveaway that water exists under the house.
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Thanks WESSSSSSSSSSSSSS 🙂
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