Fixing a Hole

[billroper]

The City of Des Plaines finally came out to fix the hole in our back yard. You may have seen the photos that jeff_duntemann posted when he stuck his camera down there and started shooting. Here are a few more as the repair proceeded.

	Bobcat Gretchen mentioned to me after she went downstairs that there was a Bobcat in our backyard. We'd been expecting one ever since the little flags from Julie -- which is the local service that marks utility lines, not our younger daughter -- appeared in our yard for the second time. The first time, they didn't dig, probably because of the smell of gas down there. They may or may not have gotten it fixed, but they were digging now.
	And the Hole As you can see, Bobcats make nice neat holes in the yard.
	A Big Old Mound of Dirt Of course, the contents of the hole have to go somewhere.
	The Collapsed Pipe And here's what the pipe looked like after -- I'm reasonably certain -- they cleaned up the edges and cut away the loose bits.
	The Repair The repair seems to consist of putting in an insert and mudding around it.
	Stealing Crackers So we went to lunch. And no photo shoot is complete without a picture of Katie and Julie. In this case, Julie is rather concerned, because Katie has circumnavigated the table to come steal the oyster crackers from her.
	Filled In The hole is filled in now, but the continued presence of the electric sheep suggests that we'll be seeing them again. This is good, as the spot is currently a bit of a mess with shards of clay pipe and such on the surface. We'll see what happens next.