In every yard, a few holes will be dug

We have been experiencing some issues with our plumbing, specifically with our sewer pipes. Come to find out, this has been a problem for our neighbor (with whom we share a side sewer line) for 2 years. Her solution? Don't flush any toilet paper. The end result? Not pretty.

I won't go into details, and I don't actually have a cross to bear with the neighbor, because mainly she has been highly cooperative and quite entertaining through this whole expensive, messy process, but I will say that if you have an older home and haven't yet had to replace any sewer pipes, give me a call before you do. Because there is no owner's manual for how to avoid getting ripped off when you need this kind of help, and now that I know a lot more I hope to not have a need for this knowledge any more. Kind of a shame how it works that way.

Now we have 5 deep, short, narrow graves waiting for permits, a yard full of piles of dirt and debris, and a very big credit card bill on the horizon. It did lead to some speed gardening on Thursday morning because I wanted to save my topsoil and harvest my lettuce (site of hole #3). So I donned my gloves and work pants and started transferring good soil to various holding areas while two guys dug holes number 1 and 2.
All in all I am appreciating the luxury of indoor plumbing a lot more now that I have considered trying to live without it. I do still wish there were better ways to conserve fresh water and recycle and re-use our gray water, but that will have to stay on the small scale until we have fixed the bigger issues.