We're going to need a bigger backhoe...

It started so innocently, with a tiny backhoe

Uh oh. Words you never want to hear. Luckily, it wasn't on my dime. It all started last year (read this blog) when our sewer backed up. Read the details if you like but what is germane to this blog is that I was advised to call the city and tell them to check the main sewer in the street. They came, and did, but I never heard anything from them. Suddenly this summer, I see the water, sewer and gas lines marked on the street in front of the house. Every now and then I would see a city worker but none ever seemed to know what was going on. Well one day I saw a contractor out there and he informed me that they were replacing my sewer line, Later that day, a small backhoe and a few traffic cones arrived. They assured me it was a quick job and that they would be done in a couple hours. Well, the next day tiny backhoe made short work of he job, but the problem wasn't in my line, Mr.Rooter was right, it was indeed the main. Time to call in the big guns.

This shit just got serious.

Arriving later that day was a monster shovel and a medium front end loader/backhoe combination. As they excavated the line they found nothing. No sewage, just an empty line. Uh oh. After removing a section of the main they found the problem. A massive root plug. With some help from the backhoe, they attached a chain pulled out the root plug. Great, except that one of the poor workers was still down in the hole and hundreds of gallons of backed up sewage roared out of the line. He scrambled up the ladder just in time. I'm not sure what they pay him, but I AM sure it's not enough. In any event, after the sewage wave subsided they patched the line and filled up the hole. Ironically, the plug was upstream from us so we wouldn't have had a problem, but very soon many of our neighbors would have a rather messy problem in their basement. When they found this out, complaints about the noise, dust, and dug up street ended.

Dad awaits lunch and a cold Yuengling. Not in that order.

In other news, we have been traveling a bit since I'm off work, (as is Cindy) and we decided to head to the Jersey shore with my dad. Specifically we went to Wildwood Crest, but dad and I spent most afternoons down in Cape May at The Lobster House, specifically The Schooner American enjoying lunch, cold beer, and a parade of yachts, fishing boats and personal watercraft. I cannot recommend a better place to have lunch and unwind. Up next, Montana and a wedding in the mountains.