Sink, Faucet and Fridge- Oh My!

Two weeks ago I was doing dishes and noticed that our sink was not draining. Thinking it was just clogged I turned on the disposal and out shot dark brown, muddy, smelly water. I was shocked and again turned on the disposal thinking, "Well now that it is unclogged it will suck it all back down." Needless to say, I was wrong. I could not bear to be in the kitchen due to the stench and decided to leave it for a couple hours and let it drain. By that evening it still had not drained so I began scooping up the disgusting water and putting it down the other drain till the sink was empty. I cleaned the sink with bleach to get rid of the stench but the bleach wouldn't drain so I ended up having to scoop that up also. In the end I plugged it, so I wouldn't have to look at the vomit like chunks and endure the smell. Two weeks later and it was still plugged (as defense we did leave town for one of those weeks).  

This is after it sat for a couple of hours, you can see residue on the sides of the sink where it was trying to drain.

After arriving home from our trip we found part of the kitchen flooded from a leak under/behind the fridge. We pulled the fridge out and dried everything. I checked the freezer and fridge and nothing was thawed or gone bad.  The next day we called our landlord and he said it was probably just melted condensation from the back of the fridge and to let him know if it persists.  So far it hasn't.

Yesterday morning I was doing dishes and the kitchen tap started dispensing brown water, as was the bathroom faucet and toilet bowl. So I brushed my teeth with bottled water and went to work. After work, the water was clear again but Ben still decided to investigate and try to fix the disposal while he was down there.  He took apart all the hoses and pipes under the sink and found the biggest clog I have ever seen; it was, no joke, as big as a tennis ball.  After pulling it out (seriously disgusting**) and letting all the nasty smelly water drain out, our sink works! Yay for Ben!

So we have had a couple of rough weeks, house wise, but due to Ben's deep knowledge and self plumbing initiative we are in the clear!! 

**For Christmas Nedra gave us a box of plastic gloves, I thought it was strange but nice. Boy have we used those gloves in dealing with this  brown vomit water. Thanks!