After heavy rains this weekend, a Medford family says the recent sunshine may have saved their home.

"It was definitely a blue Monday when you awaken at 7:30 and your wife is screaming the back yard is gone, it's surreal."

Cliff Hoffman says the storms nearly caused his family's home of more than 25 years to wash into a man made lake earlier this week.

He was recently laid off from Weathershield and says the estimates to fix their back yard totals more than $10,000.

Hoffman and his family take great pride in their yard.

His nephew was married there and for the last 13 years his family has celebrated the Fourth of July there.

His wife Tammy enjoys gardening, but in a matter of days the rain had washed away most of what they had accomplished.

"Anybody who knows what our back yard looked like just shook their heads and said one word it's unbelievable," says Cliff.

Tammy Hoffman grew up in this house and says she's never seen anything like this happen before.

Cliff says despite faithfully paying their home owners insurance, the company isn't forking over a dime.

"We do have home owners insurance but we were told due to land shifting insurance won't pay any type of damage back here."

Hoffman says his neighbors have come to his aid and have been helping them rebuild their yard.

He says some of the contractors pulled their workers from other jobs to help the family secure their home.

"We'll fill it in with a big stone and then fill it in with smaller stones and see where we are from there."

The rain stopped long enough for the Hoffman's house to hold on, and the family experienced another miracle.

Tammy screams "Oh Louie!"

After being lost for two weeks, their 6 year old pet lizard Louie emerged.

"Thanks to you for noticing him, he was outside all this time that was so wonderful. If any good came out of this I found my lizard, oh Louie. "

Despite the damage done to their yard, the Hoffman's say they plan to hold their annual 4th of July gathering this year.

If you'd like to help the Hoffman Cliff and Tammy can be reached at (715)785-7315.