Not Stumped at All

Owning a big ol' dually 3500 truck has its advantages.  We have used it here in Florida to haul everything from trees to drywall, and today it served us well as a stump extractor.

Rick starts cutting off the additional branches on the schefflera.

On the north side of Gladys, we had an ancient dwarf schefflera (schefflera arboricola) that has probably been there for the last 40 years.  I say this because although we kept it pruned down to a lower-than-the-roof height, the stump was massive.  I had started excavating the stump weeks ago, but although a little dirt had been displaced, not much more had been done.  Today Rick attacked it with the SawsAll fit with the pruning blade.  He took off some of the larger pieces and then hooked the towing strap around what was left.  Neither of us figured it would budge, but when he put the truck into gear, the stump moved!

This shows the big stump but the very shallow
root system underneath it all!

"Keep going!" I said. "It actually moved a bit."  Rick tapped the accelerator a little, and the stump pulled right out.  Unreal.  We were both amazed because the circumference of the stump was huge but the root system underneath was fairly shallow.

The hibiscus was out of the ground in short order.

"While we have the truck here, let's take out the hibiscus, too," I suggested.   I was rather sad to see the hibiscus go because hibiscus are just getting into the season where they really will start bloom,  but my bush was not the most healthy specimen, and I knew that we would have to remove it eventually to make room for the fence gate.  I knew that the root system of the hibiscus was very shallow, so we did not bother to do any digging.  We just hooked the towing strap around the base of the bush and Rick inched forward.  The bush was unearthed in 2 seconds.

I do what hibiscus around the house and in the back yard, but I will wait until we are ready to plant flowers and shrubs and then start with new plants.  After a while hibiscus get woody, so starting fresh will be easier than trying to transplant and to nurture the old bush. They are not expensive and come in a variety of colors.  I cannot wait to get to that point, but realistically, I know that shrubs probably are not until the 2015-2016 budget.

Another surprise today was that UPS drove up (before 9:30 p.m.!) with our new cabinet door for the laundry room and with the upholstery gun that Rick ordered from Amazon just yesterday.  We had just discussed the cabinet door and did not expect it for at least another week.  As far as the gun was concerned, just note that sometimes Amazon's shipping is fantastic.  Rick had the door installed in record time, so the laundry room needs only the new countertop and sink to be complete. We'll use the gun tomorrow to recover the new bedroom chair.

Our palm tree tissue box cover brings palm trees into our bedroom. 

On a side note, I had mentioned that Rick and I were going to stop at the Art Fair this past weekend.  The Fair was crowded but interesting.  We made one small purchase: a tissue box cover that carries our palm tree theme into the bedroom.  This was a small but fun purchase, and that is what living in Gladys is all about.