Wire Testing

After figuring out how to use the multimeter last night, today I set out to find the sprinkler valve control problem. I determined that the signal was properly leaving the box, and was also still in tact at the splice at the 3 valves for the front yard, where the wire takes off and starts heading to the backyard. I then tested one of the solenoids and found it to be functioning properly. From there, I dug around until I found the start of the dummy wire that runs parallel to the live wire, then hooked up it up to a 9-volt battery and checked the splices where I broke the wire, and found that the wire I broke was indeed the dummy wire. I then dug up the areas I previously dug up just to check for any other wire breaks I may have missed, but there were nada. So somewhere, somehow the live wire got broken.