It's been hot here for the past few days. HOT. That's the way it is in New England. It's cold until someone flips the "summer" switch and suddenly we've got humidity, 80 degrees, and mosquitoes everywhere.
Anyway, once the world started drying out a little, I decided to work in the yard a little.
Every year I decide that THIS is the year I will fix up our yard. I recently read (in a Yahoo! article) that landscaping of the homes surrounding yours could affect your home's value. Of course, being me, I didn't think of the 20 cars parked next door, or the house a few doors over that has been under construction for over a year, or even the one down the street that looks like it might be perpetually preparing for a yard sale that never happens. No, I thought of our awful lawn, and how the mulch near our trees has washed away so you could see the lining, and how that tree at the foot of the driveway is dying, and how me might possibly be affecting the collective value of our neighborhood.
Because it's all about me.
Anyway, I made this the year to do yardwork I have been putting off.
One thing I've been wanting to do is remove one of these bushes at the foot of the driveway. There are two, and they have gotten so big that one is crowding a smaller tree. The tree has pretty pink flowers when it blossoms, but it's stopped. I think this might be because of the salt from the road, but it might also be because of the bush crowding it.
So the other day I went out and started lopping off branches. And for ten minutes I thought it would be a fast job.
Until I got all the branches off and was left with just the stump.
It's not a huge stump, but it's thick. And deep. I couldn't dig the roots out. So I decided to saw it off as low as I could. But then I realized that I was sweating and my arms were shaking, and that I could hardly walk. Perhaps I shouldn't have gone for my run before doing this?
The next day I went out with the only hand saw I could find. Two hours later, I stopped. Again, my arms were shaking. The stump wasn't even sawed halfway through.
It's still there. The stump, I mean. I've cleared away the branches, and it looks... tended to, but it isn't the clear ground I was hoping for. I'm not quite sure what to do about it.
1 comment:
I am surprised you have not wasted away to nothing but a twig yourself! Running & then taking on a tough New England ground-being that's probably been growing there since the Green Mountain Boys!
Next time you go to Home Depot, check with the Garden people. There is an organic stump dissolver, just sprinkle it on & the stump will rot away.
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