Yesterday, September 3rd, the sewer line in the alley was finally fixed.  The bill on our credit card is a whopping $4600 or so, but at least the steady stream running through our yard and into the alley has stopped.  Turns out that the entire section was crushed and our neighbor's connection was busted.  We've got some serious problems underground over here.  I rode my bike down the alley and aside from the mushy kitty litter remains, there is hardly any sign of work done.  The smell has gone away, which is a bonus.  Now all we have to do is convince our 12 neighbors to fork over $380 each to pay for the repair.  That ought to be fun.

Unfortunately we still have to put in the line from our house to the lateral.  We're hoping we can do this ourselves and save some cash.   We've almost got the entire ditch dug, so now we just have to finish digging, lay some pipe, and take about 5 trips to the hardware store (as that is one of Murphy's home improvement laws).  

For the time being, we're trying to find alternate bathrooms for solid waste (gym, work, school, etc), but we're still showering and washing dishes, etc.  We just have a big hole in the backyard where it all drains into.  Actually, it is more beautiful now because I did some painting on Labor Day.  The puddle has maintained a nice aqua blue color, which reminds me of a gorgeous glacial lake.   Ahhh.  

We used to look at our backyard with pride and enjoyment in our eyes.  Now I look at it as a sumphole.  It's disgusting and I don't even want to see it anymore.  My vision of the perfect backyard is tainted.  Oh the sorrows of sewage infiltration.