Stuck in the Mud

When the neighbour boy called to say his brother was stuck in the mud, my first thought was "Geesh, how stuck can a 14 year old be?? And where could he possibly get stuck?"
So I quickly bundled the girls up, turned off dinner in the oven and ran over.

OK this poor boy was in deep and at first I couldn't figure out how he got himself so stuck.
I actually thought he was pulling a prank on me.
He had been walking and stepped into a sink hole and his legs sunk in so fast he couldn't move.
We had recently put in a new septic field for his home and the edges are really soft, as we found out tonight, because the soil has never had to withstand any really wet weather let alone this monsoon.

His brother heard cries for helped and checked outside and then called me.
I ran and grabbed a shovel and K grabbe dthe camera.
I started to dig but knew I wouldn't get anywhere as the water was pouring in and he was sinking more.

I called for back up from our other neighbour and he, being a big lad, tried to pull and tug with no avail.
We dug, and finally got a boot and cut it open to release his foot.
The other foot was lost so we worked on getting one out at a time.
J's mom came home and started to help as well.
At this point, about 30 minutes in, J started to get scared and was freezing, tired and crying.
We had to reassure him and comfort him and dig, dig , dig.

My J came home and helped out and finally we had one foot out and were about 45 minutes into the ordeal.
We were minutes away from calling the fire department but after a few good digs and a huge 4 man tug we got him out.
I felt so bad for his tears I couldn't take anymore photos.
Relief for him and his momma I tell you.
And my arms, they were quite shaky after all that digging.
Poor little man spent the next 2 hours defrosting in the tub.
Bet he has the sniffles in the morning.
Lesson learned, no more mud jumping on our yard.