The Hole is Dug

The hole-boring contractor just left; they successfully dug another hole but weren't able to retrieve their original drill bit, which I guess they're cutting their losses on.  From some comments he made before he left I think he is still wishing that we would let him dig it up, but I think that's a pretty crazy idea.  I have this image in my mind of his co-worker laying in the crawlspace on the opposite side of that wall (a space about 2.5' tall, by 3.5' wide, by 10' long) with a mining cap and a pickaxe. 

N just shook his head when I told him they couldn't get the drill bit out, probably wondering, like me, what other strange things might be buried under my house.  After our many crazy experiences remodeling the kitchen (e.g. at one point we found a false wall full of tree leaves - how on earth?) it wasn't hard to picture someone someday deciding to dig out the crawlspace to enlarge the basement and finding this crazy 4-foot drill bit.  "Aliens!" N exclaimed. 

The plumbers should be here sometime this morning to hook up the newly buried pipe at both ends and close the hole in the ground.  I will be glad to have that last part done - I'm really concerned about the tree right next to the hole.  They had to cut through about 1/5th of the root system to unbury the water meter, and once it was done I suddenly realized that this happens to be the 1/5th opposite the house.  Now, I should say that this tree is amazingly healthy given its circumstances.  It lives in the approximately 10' x 50' strip of land between the house and the street, and seems to have roots all over the place.  Our neighbor told us the previous owners used to keep it trimmed to a much shorter height and since they moved out it has really shot up.  (This is a very nice neighbor, who is quite put out by the tree - pollen, leaves, seeds, ice chunks, etc on his otherwise very clean car and driveway - but tries not to complain.)  I've always thought that cutting the top off of a tree is very unhealthy and if done repeatedly will kill it, but this is just about the healthiest tree I've ever seen on a city lot.  I would say it drops about two feet of leaves every year.  So, I am hopeful that it will recover from this mess and not die or fall on our house or both, but I will feel better when they cover up the mangled roots so they can start re-growing.