Day Eight: Removing the Tree Stump

I had one goal in mind today:  remove the tree stump from the front yard.

I knew I was going to be pressed for time, so I made sure the tools would be there when I arrived at the house.  I was flying in from out of town and wanted to get this project taken care of tonight so that we didn't have to work outside in the 95-degree temps tomorrow.

So I landed, Mom picked me up, and we headed to the house where Dad had arrived about 15 minutes before us.  It was 6:40 P.M.  We had just over an hour of daylight remaining.  He had already started clearing out the dirt around the tree roots.  That was the goal.  We had considered stump-grinding the roots, but they were many...and we didn't have a stump grinder handy.  I had considered burning the roots, but the city doesn't allow fires in city limits.  So we had to muscle it out.  We were going to dig underneath the roots, then cut them with a chainsaw...at least that was the plan.

So we went to work immediately.  Just good ol'-fashioned work.  Digging dirt, axing smaller roots, chainsawing bigger ones.  Even with the temperature dropping, it was so humid and warm!  We were soaked.  My sister and brother-in-law showed up (so my nieces could see me), and my brother-in-law provided some much needed extra manpower.  This tree was stubborn.

But we worked at it over and over.  The little girls tried to help, too.  They always want to be a part of the action!  Slowly, we removed one of the larger pieces.  Then we worked on another.  It finally came up.  But we were losing daylight FAST.  Finally, my brother-in-law left, and it was up to Dad and me to get this last part out...the thickest and hardest part yet!  It was the middle that we left behind!

I was so exhausted.  We were now operating by headlights from the car.  We finally just said we would have to get it tomorrow...but wait...let's give it ONE try, Dad said.  So we went at it.  Hey, did it move?!  It moved!  We used a prybar to work at it.  I chopped roots with the axe.  We worked and worked and worked...

Working by headlights!  The tree root is FINALLY gone for good!!!

FINALLY, the root gave way.  We had finished.  And it took less than 10 minutes from when we said we were absolutely spent!  (We were).  We threw the logs in a pile, then headed home for a very late 9:00 P.M. supper.



The mess I found the next day!  It doesn't look like much, but that was a LOT of tree root to remove.

I'm so glad to have that project done.  It only took an hour-and-a-half, but it's nice to check off the list, and now we can focus on working inside tomorrow...outside of the heat.