This is a true story based on actual happenings from the past weekend. I decided I was going to clean my front flower beds this weekend. The weather was perfect and I was finally feeling well enough to go outside and work in the yard. I made great progress, discovered some poison ivy and a couple ant hills but other than that it was uneventful. I had two beds to finish the one with the hydrangea bush (which I hate cleaning) and the Yucca Tree. The tree is pictured below not my tree but a similar tree – note the very pointy (aka: sharp as hell) tips!
So I decided since the Yucca Tree bed was smaller I would start there. I went to rake out the bed and hit the tree and a huge piece came off. I was excited because I was not a fan of that tree anyways but neither Jeff or I wanted to remove it because it looked very painful. We trimmed the tips off every couple of weeks but every now and then, we would miss one and I was so afraid our kids would run into it and get seriously injured (the plant was at eye level for them). So when that branch fell off I was ecstatic, so I pushed on another it fell right over as well. I did this until there was just a stump. I was so proud of myself I took pictures with my cell phone.
The branches of the Yucca Tree. I did a little scratched up but it wasn’t horrible.
The stump – Oh I hate this stump. I seriously didn’t realize it was going to be that difficult to remove this – it was dying/dead!
This should have been my first clue this was not going to be an easy task. I snapped our shovel in two. I also discovered river rocks 6” under the soil, meaning the whole entire bed was filled with rocks.
I dug some more around with a simple trowel. As you can see the Booga thought the trowel was a lollipop, I so wish I could have gotten a picture of Jeff’s face to go with this. We decided once Booga started eating rocks that was enough for the day and we went to dinner as a family. We also stopped at Ace to get a NEW rake and a shovel with a metal handle. Jeff said as we were checking out lets see that stump break this. The Booga sat through dinner and ate two pieces of pizza and also got ice cream afterwards making both kids (mom and dad) very happy
Day Two of Bad Tree:
I went outside about noon and decided to start digging. I dug up more rocks and Jeff and my daughter took the old cedar flower bed to the dump. While they were gone and the Booga was napping I started to find wood chips. I didn’t think anything of it I thought more mulch then I hit something:
Why yes that is an old cedar flower bed under all that dirt. So I started digging and digging only to discover this:
Yes that does go all the way down the side of my house and under the side porch. By this point I was pretty angry. I mean really, who and the hell does this?
So I stopped working on that and went back to the big stump only to discover this:
That is the cable or electrical to my house I didn’t know was there. By this time I was really mad and a little freaked out that I almost cut whatever cable it was to my house.
I then took the crowbar and started hitting the stump. When that didn’t work I grabbed the machete and screamed at it while I whacked at it. I think my neighbor’s thought I lost it. Therapeutic but it was still there and so I quit.
I seriously wanted to leave it there for all eternity but Jeff said he would try and get it out. He got all the old cedar up (it snapped when it got to the porch) and he asked me to come over and help. He put the shovel under and I pulled and he raised the stump up and rolled it to the side yard. I have never been so happy to see a giant hole in the ground.
Jeff rules! Moving the giant stump and see the cedar beds two deep! The cedar was also entwined with roots from the tree!
Victory!
The pile of rocks and dirt are still in my driveway but the stump is out! We are thinking of putting either a raspberry or a blueberry bush there (I want something with thorns so they don’t disappear that quickly – lol).
Who Are You Calling Crafty? 