I started with a nice little section of grass removed. Then I started digging. David wanted in so he tried digging for a while. By the time we hit 5 feet we had a deep narrow hole that I would never be able to work in and we still didn't know where the actual problem was...we hadn't even gotten down to the pipes yet.
In order to find the direction of the leak (so I would know which was to dig) I turned the water on. As the hole began to fill with water I detected the source was somewhere close by and on the north side of the current hole. So, after cutting out more sod, we continued expanding the hole. Our wonderful neighbors to the north, the Dukes, notice the construction project underway and wandered down to see what was going on. After explaining the problem he took my shovel and started hauling dirt out of the hole for me. We traded off for a while but we were starting to slow in our progress. The hole was bigger but it wasn't deeper yet and we still hadn't found the offending section of pipe!
While we were digging another northern neighbor, Carl, walked by and stopped to take a gander. He was impressed by the hole and offered some sage advice before continuing on his walk around the neighborhood. It was lunch time so I stopped to eat and Don had other appointments and obligations to attend to so he promised to stop by later and check on our progress. I ate lunch but didn't want to go back outside. I think it was then that I noticed that the temperature was already 90 degrees!
I continued shoveling and finally made a hole big enough for me to get in and still do something. So, with a hand trowel and a small bucket, I started clearing out the bottom of the hole to create some working room and discover what was causing the leak. It didn't take long after that to find to break in the pipe. The break was between the stop and waste valve and the pvc pipe connection. How that one broke is still a mystery.
