Back to the Grind.

You didn’t think we’d stay a way from yard work for long, now did you? Of course not. Not with fiancé running the show. A couple of weekends ago (I’ve really got to up my blog-keeping game) we had a big yard project to tackle – Operation: STUMP REMOVAL.

Yep, that’s right. Stump Removal. The angelic homeowners who occupied 16202 before the pack and I moved in cut down 6 massive cedar trees. “Why?” you ask.. “WHY?!” to which I’d reply, “Heck if I know.” 

 Alas, we had six giant stumps lining our back fence, preventing the planting of new, healthy, neighbor-view-blocking trees and taunting Jaydee. They had to be removed and luckily for us there’s a machine that’s made to do just that.

The machine. It was a beast.

Ok, I know this doesn't look very scary... but on the business end, this bad boy was equipped with teeth that promised to destroy anything it came in contact with. It was real mean. I always trust the pooches for character judgment and I'll tell ya what, Bruce wasn't a fan from the get-go.

Getting the Stump Grinder (shall we call her "S.G."?) in the backyard was the hardest part. After multiple attempts at backyard entry from various points around 16202, Jaydee finally decided that the best bet was to take S.G. up the skinny little walkway to the right of the garage. 

Unfortunately for Brewski, Jaydee found out that S.G.'s outer tires were removable and without the extra four inches on either side, S.G. did, in fact, fit up the walkway.

Poor Bruce. 

Jaydee and Toby [slowly] managed to get S.G. up the slope, into the back yard, positioned over stump #1 and ready to to start chewing. 

When we were finally ready to start grinding, we were all just about dead from anticipation. Jaydee fired S.G. up and slowly lowered the mean teeth over the stump #1. 

Because of the excitement, Toby, Bruce, Trent and I were all standing quite close to S.G. We quickly learned that was a mistake. We were forced to retreat back towards the house to remove the cedar chips from our teeth and watch from afar.

Like most projects with new, exciting, industrial equipment, stump grinding was real fun for about 10 minutes. Then it got boring. So we tried to mix it up.

I stump grinded.

Then Toby took a stab at it.

After that, Trent gave it a go.

Juuuuust kidding. Trent's a dog - he can't stump grind. It's the lack of thumbs.

As is the case with most yard projects, I failed to understand the commitment I was making when I signed up to help fiance with this project. I didn't realize that for every stump we ground, we'd wind up with about 824,324,932 lbs of stump dust that had to be shoveled into a wheel barrow, wheeled somewhere, and then shoveled out.

Finally after about 5 hours of S.G. hard at work and lots and lots of shoveling we were stumpless x 6.

 

S.G. was done. It was time for the 'ol girl to make her slow descent across the yard, down the skinny path, across the driveway, up the ramp and back into the trailer. Her exit was slow and anticlimatic (much like her entrance)...

Where did we put all that stump dust, you may wonder?

At Bruce's house.