Last weekend, while doing some yard work, I decided to tackle the tree stump left by the previous owners. This stump was an eyesore in the midst of an otherwise very nice back yard. Who in their right mind would leave a stump sticking up 5 feet out of the ground? To add to it, the stump had a T-Bar driven between it’s roots, and a rope wrapped around it. The rope was dug in a good inch into the tree… Obviously not the smartest thing to do.

To get this thing out, I started by rolling back the sod around the base of the tree. I then dug a hole all the way around the trunk to expose the roots. Once the roots were exposed, I cut them with the large loppers. The roots that were too big for the loppers got hacked up with a hatchet. Finally, the tree began to move! As I pushed and pulled on the tree, I could feel it beginning to move. I dug a little deeper, and hacked a few more roots out. Finally, the tree was swaying! We continually pushed it back and forth, allowing me to hack/cut more and more of the roots. Finally, the last root was hacked, and the tree fell with a deafening thud! (No, not really…) The trunk weighed a good 100 lbs… The roots add a lot of weight to a tree!

To finish the job, I filled the hole back with all the clay I had dug out, and then topped it off with a good layer of black dirt. I watered the black dirt, and rolled the sod back over top of it. Because I had piled the clay on top of some of the sod, it was in pretty bad shape. I tried to rake out as much as I could. I then scattered seed all over the area, and poured on some fertilizer. One last watering, and the job was complete! We still haven’t seen much for grass coming up, but hopefully it will take root and fill out the bad spots!

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