Jared Victorious

The battle against the stumps in our yard rages on and Jared is winning. Since last month we've gotten three more stumps out of the ground thanks to Jared and his manly manliness. The one that in the beginning looked the smallest ended up being the biggest and most difficult. I've decided that stumps are kind of like icebergs in that the part you actually see above the ground doesn't really give you any idea of what's going on underground. This particular stump ended up having four big roots that branched out from the stump itself and made it really hard to get out. Jared's usual plan of attack is to first remove the sod from around the stump so we can then fill it in when he's done. Then he digs down about a foot, or until he starts hitting the roots, all around the stump. Next he gets the hatchet and starts cutting through the roots to loosen the stump. The last step is to use the pick ax to sort of lever the stump out of the ground. This has usually been a successful way for him to get a stump out and takes maybe an hour.

The four large roots on this stump that were getting in the way were not only big and hard for Jared to chop through, but they were also deeper than usual with the deepest one being about two feet underground. Jared spent every evening after dinner that it wasn't raining (so maybe two days in seven!) working on that stump. I'm sure that our neighbors were ready for him to be done already; it looked so bad with dirt all over the place from him digging and digging and the chunks of root that he was able to chop through on the lawn. I think in the end that one stubborn tree stump took Jared about six hours to tackle. I am grateful for such a hard-working husband and that slowly but surely our yard is coming together.