cold showers no more

Two Thursdays ago, June 11, when our gas meter reader read our meter, he noticed it was a little higher than usual. So with a knock on our door we no longer had gas. He said we have a gas leak and he had to shut it off until it got fixed. I called my dad, who built this house and knew where the gas line was located, and he came right over. We tested the pipe outside and what do you know, the leak was underground. OK boys get digging. That night Jason, and Paul, and later Clint was kind enough to help us, started digging a hole. My dad said that the pipe was 18" deep. We got down 2 feet and still didn't see it. That sucker was 3 feet down! We were going to get an early start digging it by hand to save money come Friday morning. Well Clint came over early and Paul stayed up late after work and by the time I got up, nothing had be done. They had called Mt. Graham supply and got a quote for 350 to 400 and that would be with this flexible pipe called PE pipe, which was at least half the price of the steel pipe. My dad wanted to dig up the whole steel pipe, by hand, and replace all of it costing at the least 500. We wanted to hire someone or at least rent a machine to do the digging and only replace where the leak was. Let's face it, we aren't made of money. So after being outside for about an hour just standing there, dying from the heat, we decided to hire Mt. Graham supply. We went with the dig-a-new-trench-place-a-new-line option and just forgot about the steel pipe. Well we had to get it blue sticked first. That is where all the utility people come and mark where their lines are so you don't hit them. Finally on Tuesday the last blue sticker came and we got the repair set up for first thing Wednesday. First thing turned into 1:00. They arrived with a trencher. That got probably 20 feet or so done when it died. After probably an hour of waiting some guy showed up with a mini back hoe and they dug it that way. By 3 they were done and by 4 the co-op guy came and checked it and replaced the meter and turned our appliances back on and re-lit the pilot light. mmmm, hot water!!!

In the meantime, I think we dug up a nest of some sort because there are millions of little bugs surrounding our house, some even got inside.