Remember that scene in the movie
Shane where the gunfighter grabs an axe and helps Joe tear out an old stump? My Saturday was just like that, except Alan Ladd didn't help me. I cleared out an old stump single-handed. I did it the old fashioned way, with maul and axe and wedge. Sure, I know there are stump grinders out there but they take money. My back and sweat are free. The stump from the ash in my side yard that was destroyed by bugs is gone. The spot is filled, leveled, and grass seed is planted.
Before I went into the one -time only stump removal business I washed the wife's SUV. I watered the flowers. I picked weeds from the garden.
Later in the afternoon I moved some furniture for the wife, including a dresser and big computer armoir.
I can't figure out why my back and shoulders are sore this morning.
The tree stump in my back yard that was cut to the ground, grew grass over it. Then, as the below-ground stump, the roots, rotted, the ground sunk, making it dangerous. That was 30 or more years ago. I put huge rocks on it. They were two feet long and about that wide and 10 inches or so thick--HUGE. Now, it is still rotting down there. The tree was a hickory with a three foot diameter.
ReplyDeleteThe tree that was only about 10 inches in diameter seemed to have none of these problems. Now, occasionally I step into a hole where even that root is still rotting 30 years later.
So, beware. A stump grinder only helps so much.
The carpenter ants had riddled the tree I felled leaving a stump full of tunnels.
ReplyDeleteI poured gasoline into it, let it soak and lit it.
Two days later, the ground was still smoldering and the had caved in.