to repair a main water line. Here's the story of our village:
Mike decided Saturday morning to go get some plants for our yard. He bought 4 bushes for the back, two bushes for outside Ethan's window,
two tomato plants, and a palm tree
for the front yard. Not too long into digging in the backyard, he had already cut through a small drip line and the main drip line. Annoying, but not a huge deal. He also remembered how hard it is to dig in the mountain dirt in our area and was wishing he had a pick ax. So, at my suggestion, he went and bought a pick ax. As he started into the front yard to remove a bush and replace it with the palm tree I reminded him to be careful not to hit out water line or power lines, cue ominous foreshadowing music.
Less than ten minutes later Mike opens the front door, "You're not using any water are you?" "No." And he's gone. I think, "You've got to be kidding me" and run out front. Sure enough, there is water gushing out of the hole Mike had been digging, which is right next to our water box, and right in line with the blue spray paint arrow the city used to mark our water line last time we were landscaping.
Mike, being from Utah, was not thinking about our water line only being 12" down and had put the pick ax all the way through the water line--a hole through the top and bottom of the pipe. He tried to find a lever or something in the water box to turn off the water but couldn't. Fortunately, he knew that our next door neighbor worked for the water company.
Enter villager #1
Mike ran next door and got our neighbor who attempted to use a wrench in place of the key the water company has to turn off the water. He gave me the number for the emergency line to the water department. I called, listened to a recording, got put on hold, and then hung up when our neighbor finally got the water off.
Now to assess the damage. Mike gets an empty milk carton and starts bailing the water out of the hole.
Enter Villager #2
Our neighbor from down the street, Steve, comes down to check on us (a yard and street full of water must have tipped him off that we were having a problem). He doesn't know anything about plumbing, but has a bucket we can use to bail out the water. We finally get all the water out and see this:
Villager #1 tells Mike that the piping is called
Pex pipe and that he should be able to get a coupling at Home Depot. Phew, all we have to do is cut out the broken section and put in a coupling.
Enter Villager #3
At Home Depot Mike is unable to find the part that he needs. He learns from an employee there that they don't carry the connectors for
Pex pipes, but that he can go to a certain plumbing store not too far away.
Enter Villager #4
Mike calls the plumbing store. They do not have the correct parts either, but tell him that Lowe's probably does. On to Lowe's.
Enter Villager #5
The Lowe's employee helps Mike to look for the correct parts. They have
Pex piping, but not the correct size. Mike is referred to the same plumbing store. They tell Mike that he might have to get the parts from a specialty store for contractors, which won't open until Monday.
Mike ends up back at Home Depot where they start calling Home Depot's all over the state looking for the correct size piping. They find one about 45 min away, but the employee there suggests a coupling made for copper and PVC piping that will work. Mike buys that part, comes home relieved, and cuts out a section of the pipe so that he can insert the coupling. Uh oh, even though this is a 1" coupling and we have a 1" pipe, the
Pex pipe walls are so thick that they won't fit into the coupling.
Back to Home Depot, with a piece of the pipe to look for a bigger coupling. Of course there is no coupling big enough, and now it is no longer an option to patch the holes because we have cut the pipe.
Enter Villager #7
During all of this I, of course, am starting to get very worried about not having any water for the next few days. So, I called the water company again and asked how we can get the parts to fix this problem. The foreman tells me that he and his crews are about to head out on their routes and that he will stop by to see what he can do to help. So, two hours later he comes by. He actually knows Villager #1 through work. He gave Mike several feet of copper tubing and two massive couplings that allow
Pex to go in one side and copper tubing to go in the other.
So, still with the help of Villager #1, who spent a large part of his day helping us, Mike cut each end of the tube and attached the couplings. Now to cut the copper tubing. Mike had bought a hack saw, but it was pretty lame, so we were using the
neighbor's for everything.
Enter Villager #8
Right after we measured where to cut the copper piping, our neighbors across the street (Sam and family) open their garage door. We tell them what is going on and find out that Tony, Sam's dad, used to be a plumber and he has a "saw-all!" He cuts the copper with no problem and comes over to help get all of the pipes together. No more holes!
We turn the water back on and both connections start spraying water. Fantastic. Mike and Villagers 1 and 8 spend some time tightening all of the connections and now, finally, we have water with no leaking pipes! We are leaving it uncovered for awhile to watch for leaks and are considering finding the correct
Pex pipe parts anyway since they will probably last longer than the compression couplings.
I don't know what we would have done without our village of helpers--thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
So five hours later, in the Arizona heat, we have water, but none of the nine plants Mike bought were planted. The bushes sitting in the backyard were looking pretty pitiful as we had not been able to water them. So Mike stayed out for another 3-4 hours planting all of the plants and setting up the
drip line to them. Poor Mike was really glad when yesterday was over!
P.S. Notice the rock? While I was in New York, we had 20 tons of gravel delivered to our house. Mike and some very generous neighbors, family, and ward members helped get it all into the backyard. Another big, HUGE THANK YOU!!! The rock is still all covered in red dust, but underneath is a really cool color. Until this water main incident our whole street was covered with red dust as well, so there is one silver lining!
We got a bunch of new toys from someone on Craigslist. I was a little annoyed that they didn't tell us that a few only speak French, but Ethan loves them and they were really cheap.
Ethan understands the concept of counting to three. He loves having his picture taken and will smile every time I count to three to take his picture. He can't keep his eyes open when the flash lights up though. I have lots of pictures like the one below.
Terrible pictures of me, but I still kinda like them.
We went to IKEA on Friday and Dad and Ethan had lots of fun. Ethan ended up in quite a few toy bins. He also got to hang out in a bin of sheep skin rugs, try out all of the toys, and play with a big silver bowl that he loved.
And of course Dad shared his ice cream. 
Ethan is now very good at crawling. While talking to my dad on Father's Day, I found out that Ethan is just like my dad was as a baby: he pretty much uses crawling as a way of getting to something he can use to stand up. He loves to stand and walk holding onto things. He is very steady and only needs one hand to stay up. He can even stand on his own for a few seconds.
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