After staking out the stairs last week, it was time to get to the digging business. Upon starting that digging, it immediately became apparent that this wasn’t going to be a ball in the park. (Is that a phrase? I know entirely nothing about sports. Not even barely-related sayings. Or maybe I just don’t know sayings.) There were roots aplenty, stones and rocks even more, and clay-y dense soil filling in all the rest of the space. Our leveled and measured staking and ropeage was quickly getting ragged from the hacking by shovels, pickaxes, and the Flash Flood Warning rain at the end of last week (wasn’t that fun though?!).
But it all works out in the end: we encountered a sizeable tree stump early on that looked like it was going to take some good work. But after commencing that good work, we realized that it was going to take more than that. We decided to research our options, since this wasn’t about to come out by asking it nicely or trying to hack it to pieces. Tennessee came to us with options yesterday morning:
1. Poke holes in it, fill those holes with diesel, and set it on fire. As much fun as that sounds (I love fire), it requires power tools and diesel. Neither are WILD Wes friendly. No good.
This is Arcade Fire. They are WILD Wes friendly.
2. Stump grinder. Does exactly what it sounds like it does, if you’re thinking about it in the right way. But this is heavy machinery. (So that’s a no.)
3. Tie one end of a rope around it, the other end onto the back of your car, and attempt to drive it out of the ground. But nature is powerful, and there was no way we were going to get under that monster of a stump to tie a rope around it. No dice.
At least it kind of made a good chair I guess. TO SULK ON
All of our options exhausted, we worked around the problem. By doing exactly that. We moved where the stairs are supposed to go by a few feet and just avoided it entirely. Tennessee still did a mighty job hacking the stump’s appendages away, and the rest of the roots we inevitably found while digging out the hill further over. So as I said earlier, it all worked out in the end: we were in need of re-staking the stairs anyways. So that’s on the agenda for tomorrow. Rain or shine (it’s going to rain), we’ll be there. 8 AM sharp.
Filtered Image courtesy of Nathaniel via Twitter. Also these are the roots we dug up, hacked up, and excavated today. Holla.
Have a good night everyone.
Love,
Rina
WILD Wes 