Well that's just nature's way of reminding you who's really in charge of the water supply (hint: it's not us). Nothing like watching months of careful saving just sprint back to the storm drain in a few minutes. Maybe the barrel was just trying to return to its people. You'd think something made to hold liquid could, you know, hold liquid.

So you were already two days into hand mixing when it showed up. What was the first batch like with the machine? Was it just the speed, or did you notice right away that the mortar itself was better for laying up?

Ugh, @keithb51, just get a heavy-duty surge protector, man.

Man, I gotta say, maybe the guy had a point. A brush is the main tool of the trade, right? It's like saying a chef is just a person with a knife. That brush is what gets the job done, clean and simple. Sometimes people say stuff without thinking how it sounds. He might have just been having a bad day and it came out wrong.

Nice save with the egg cartons. I had a similar mess after adding a bunch of pumpkin guts last fall. Shredded paper from my home office junk mail drawer worked in a pinch, but dry leaves from the yard are my go-to now. They seem to add some fluff and air pockets while they soak up the wet spots.