The Coronavirus: Home Project #1

This project happened for two reasons. First, the inch thick roots of the tree were growing into the sidewalk to the house. Second, I was bored and knew this would be a good use of my stay-at-home-order time.  

The tree that M&I homes planted ten years ago was taken down and replaced by a nice flower bed.  I liked the tree - really I did - and I will miss it.  The tree was a source of pride for me for a while because ours seemed to be the only one on the street that really took off and started to grow. 

It was a good tree all year long. In the spring it would be one of the last trees to bud, a sign that the weather had indeed turned from winter. In the summer, its leaves would turn up and show their silver undersides during rainstorms. During the hail storm of 2017, damn near all of the leaves were stripped off of it. In the fall, the leaves would turn a deep red and fall to the pavement leaving stains like temporary tattoos until spring. At Christmas, I would wrap and hang lights off of it to add color to the holidays.   

Despite the memories, the decision to take down the tree was pretty easy. The roots were going to cause damage to other parts of the house costing money in repairs. 

Our neighbor, James, had an electric chainsaw and I thought there was no time like the present. I cut down the big limbs first with the boys grabbing them and piling them at the end of the street. The trunk was pretty easy too; a couple of good cuts and it fell right where I wanted it to. TJ got a chance to work with power tools. Just like earlier this year when he shot guns, he took the tasks seriously and with a bit of trepidation.

And then all we had was a stump sticking about three inches out of the ground...an ugly stump and I had no real plan to remove it. Then COVID-19 kept me at home.  

Grant discovered his inner lumberjack and helped me dig, chop, and haul away parts of the root ball.  We did a lot of it by hand. It was both cathartic and exhausting. It took three days with an axe to remove a small portion of the root ball.  I would swing the axe and Grant would get out the pieces. Slowly we made progress. 

Samantha and Mitchell came down from Chapel Hill over a weekend. We continued to dig, chop, and haul pieces away but I knew we would need a real chainsaw. Home Depot rents them and for $50 we cut through big sections of the stump. We exposed the root ball - and I mean root ball - whoever planted the tree in 2010 never cut the burlap bag causing the roots to curl over and around each other. The tree was not going to give up without a fight.

However, with every cut and every chop, it was clear to us that the entire stump was moving.  Wiggling.  With a couple of precise swings it would come out.  I got the last swing and pulled the root ball out and held it up like Medusa's head. It was a victorious moment. 

TJ, Grant, Mitch and I filled the whole up and raked around the bricks to make it look nice. We emptied the contents of Grant's science experiment; two plastic bins of compost material (one with worms and one without worms to see if there was a difference in the soil) and filled in the top with garden soil. With a trip to the Garden Hut around the corner I purchased ground cover and some flowering plants to add some height and proceeded to get my hands dirty.  

I am not much of a gardener but I do like getting my hands in the dirt from time to time. In time we might replace the flower bed with a small flowering tree but for now I am satisfied with the work everyone did and can focus on the next COVID project.