Unearthed

The guys who cut down our tulip tree last year drove a HUGE truck with a cherry picker into our backyard to get at our tree. They barely made it back there. The truck was one of those with the hydraulic supports that jut out from the sides when they need to stabilize the truck against the forces exerted upon it by the arm that holds the basket. The truck looked a lot like the one in the line drawing at the right. The picture shows it's general form, but it doesn't how how heavy it is. It was really heavy. They parked it on one of beds of day lilies in the back, and the ruts they left in our lawn are still there.

When they drove off I realized that the weight of the truck had crushed the side of a tree stump that had been hiding in the foliage of the day lilies. Oh the things that hide in my day lilies . . .

It really was a heavy truck, but heavy enough to crush a tree stump? Well, it turns out that a rotten tree stump is a lot easier to crush than a not rotten one. I was easily able to chip big chunks off the tree stump with our garden shovel last fall. I tried leveraging it out, but I couldn't. There was still too much of the root system holding on underground.

What with the lovely weather, I thought I'd give it another try. For the past few days I have chipped bits away here and there. Every so often I'd try to leverage the stump out of the ground, and as I worked it became easier and more of it appeared free. Today only one root remained; a solitary tether. I got out my hacksaw and made quick work of it.


All of that except the top two inches came up out of the ground.