Finally, the Conch Canal

When the plumbers arrived at the house this morning, they thought digging the extension of the sewer pipe, to run beyond the den deck and past the area where the equipment pad has to go, might take a couple of hours.

But that reddish lump Pedro was attacking with the Sawzall is a sapodilla root -- at 8 inches or so, the smallest of three big ones they found in the pipe's path. Sawzall, pickaxe, mattock, more Sawzall.

I made a lame joke to Pedro, who's Nicaraguan, about digging the Culebra Cut, and he's such a good-humored guy he even laughed.

Five hours later, they were still sweating, but now we can build the form for that pad.