Roots

When I bought my house in Tulsa, there was a huge shrub right in the middle of the lawn.  I wanted it gone.  My husband, who had to mow around it, wanted it gone.  We decided to cut it down and dig out the stump.

On a rainy day, I convinced my husband that it would be easier to get it out if the ground around it was all wet.  It was actually easier to dig... but what a mess.  We spent the better part of a whole weekend hacking through roots and tugging and pulling.  We bent a metal pry bar trying to break the suction under the stupid stump.

But we finally got it out, took it to the green waste and said good bye to the problematic shrub.  Each time I look out the window, I'm glad that it's gone.

Today, my daughter asked for some help with her new home's plantings.  I took her to the nursery and showed her how to read the tags on the plants, showed her how to plan the textures, colors and heights.  We bought some plants, tools and mulch.  Then we went to her home.  It began to drizzle.

We planted the new plants and laid some fabric down and mulched.  It looked a lot better already.  Then DD pointed to a big bush and said, "I want that gone."  The flashback was tremendous.  I looked at it, imagined mowing around it and nodded.  I got the chainsaw.  We cut down the limbs and began the harrowing job of digging out the roots.  Hours later, covered with mud from head to toe, my DD looked at me and said, "You know, I don't mind hiring someone to grind the stump." 

I was not at all surprised.  It was way too much work.  I told her I thought it was a great idea and that we had done the hard part cutting the thing down.  Then I made her husband promise to call a stump grinder for an estimate the next day.  Done.  Gone.  It's all good.

--Sandee Wagner