Excavation in the backyard

I have been mowing the lawn today. Never thought I would be doing that in January. At one point I thought I had found a buried animal or something, so I started to tear up this section of the back yard, feeling proper CSI. After a while I discovered that it wasn't any animal, but one of those mats that you use to get grass to grow in places it usually doesn't like dark sandy corners in the back yard...

I also found this weird cable sticking out of the ground... It just pops up only to go down again. It is very Lost!

Bought Pineapple Express at Walmart. Will be cool to watch that tonight and forget all about (alien?) cables.