This piece of rusted out metal was a section of the natural Gas line going into my house. The MRS noticed a gas odor in one of our rooms late one night the 1st week in November. She called the gas company and they arrived around 2am. After determining there was a leak, they turned off the gas to my house, which meant no hot water and no heat. It was not yet getting cold- maybe the mid or lower 50's at night, but not having hot water for a shower was tough. After my 3rd cold shower (water was 74degs but that is cold for me- I won't even go into my pool until it's 78), I found a great portable shower system, so we would heat up a pot of water (our stove is electric) and dump it into a 5gal bucket of tap water, which made for a nice, warm shower. The gas line going to our home, which is maybe 40years old, had a section near it that hat rotted out somehow, and they set it aside for us. It took 10 days for everything to happen before we had our Gas turned on. There were several other spots that were rusted through like what you see here.