P - U!!!! A very stinky situation!

After 2 1/2 years of having sewer back-up problems (YUCK!), we are finally getting it fixed! We hope... Today we had a contractor come over to dig up our old clay tile sewer pipe to replace it with a new PVC pipe. I don't think either of us knew what was in store for our poor little yard! Here are a few pictures I took this afternoon....

They started with a little hole in our basement floor...

Then started to gut the insides out of our beautiful front yard. They had to cut down a huge pine tree (which I was OK with since it was pretty scraggly and ugly) and fortunately, they were able to spare the big maple (seen to the right of the picture). They did have to cut a few of the branches off, so now it is a little lop-sided. Hopefully it survives having 1/2 it's root system destroyed.

The trench is about 6-8 Feet deep and about 4-5 feet wide - it is hard to see how big it actually is from these pictures. The old pine tree used to be right about where the big back-hoe is parked. They cut the branches off the left side of the maple tree, so it's no longer a perfect tree, but at least it is still there!

All the way to the street (about 75 feet)! Tomorrow the plumbing inspector will come by to check things out. After that, they will fill it back in and hopefully it will look a little better! What a mess!

On a more exciting note.... 9 Days until Greece!!!!!!!

Good News!

First of all, let me apologize for not posting in a very long time! I have no excuses and will try to do better in the future. It should be pretty easy to keep it going since we have a new topic to address - We are having a baby! Baby Shilman is due on December 20th! Things have been going very well, I'm actually still having a hard time believing that it is true! I don't feel pregnant - but I'm sure that will come with time! We have a busy spring, summer and fall coming up, starting with the replacement of our main sewer line! Very Yuck, but very necessary. On May 30th we will be leaving the country with our good friends Erica Tangen and her boyfriend Jeff Green. We are headed to Greece for about 10 days! We are really looking forward to the trip! Softball (Go First Lutheran Flyers!) will be starting early June. I am sitting out this year for obvious reasons, but I think I'll make a pretty good cheering section. I have my 10 year High School reunion in Dickinson over the 4th of July. We have 4 weddings this fall starting in August ending in November! I will be in our Friends Katie and Goff's wedding in October as a bridesmaid and Nick will be in our friends Jesse and Carrie's wedding in November as a groomsman! And in the mean time we will be preparing for the birth of our much anticipated first baby! Get ready for some postings!!!!!!