Posted on 27th Sep 2011 @ 11:08 PM

Volunteers Find Cheep, and Easy Methods to Cope With Neighborhood Flooding from SaddlebackSandbags.com In our younger years, my husband Jean , my little brothers, Nathan and Ian and I would fill sand bags at a fire station and load them into vehicles at a sand pit during flood season. This was an unexpectedly romantic date night for my husband and I. I admired his stamina, strength and selfless giving. My brothers were small at the time and found the task to be fun with a purpose. By the time we began our volunteer work there was a sense of urgency and many people drove up weren't worried about the sand leaking out in their otherwise immaculate cars. They would drive off with the rear of their car sagging with sand bags in hopes of stopping the flood creeping in at their doorways and garages. We would leave the sand pile when there were no more bags for the sand. We have marveled at the work that must have gone into some of the sandbag fortresses we have seen in our area. One neighbor, a metalworks artist, gave us a tour of his beautiful, sprawling estate by the river and he expIained to us that he just accepted the fact there would be an occasional flood. When he remodeled his house, he moved everything he cared about to the upper floors. He was hoping to sell his home but he had to disclose that whoever bought his house would expect to rebuild or just knock the whole thing down and start over. Some of his original metal work had gone into the building of the home. Finally, he made a floating boat house that took advantage of his metal working talents complete with a self composting toilet, (which is exactly what you imagine but without the stink). At least he knew it would float during flood season. It's been years now since our brother sister team has met for sandbagging. One of my brothers is now a superhero for a living. He works for the fire department. He is always at the right place at the right time, even when he's off duty. The other is a more of the family's private super hero, he designs solar energy complexes and helps fix the families computers. My husband is a body builder now although he's had a double hernia operation a few years ago and a few other health concerns such as complications from mold exposure that sent us to volunteer elcewhere. There is a company that has been delivering empty sandbags to all of the United States and filled sandbags to Southern California and surrounding areas for 25 years, saddlebacksandbags.com They have recently added on line ordering but their prices are still low. You won't feel like someone is taking advantage of your predicament. They serve homowners and contractors. The prices lower than what some people tried to pay us for our volunteer work. The price is even lower in bulk. That explains some of the professional looking structures we saw during flood season, with even and neat looking bags. You can see exactly what you need as soon as you are on the sight. It's all on the first page, even the cost of filled or empty bags is broken down in increments enabling you to just click and order. No shoveling involved.