Hidden Obstacles

Back in the 1940's, radio listeners were thrilled to hear the words, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?  The Shadow knows!" because what followed was one of the most popular radio programs of the times.  My thought as Rick and I ventured out to the front yard this morning was, "Who knows what lurks under the ground at our feet?"

We were standing where we had our old bottle brush tree removed, and we knew that the company who took down the tree did not do a good job of removing the roots.  Why do we care?  Well, just to the right of where the bottle brush tree was growing, we want to plant a palm tree next year.  If we did not take the time to get out the roots, we would not be able to plant the tree next year.

When we had the tree removed, the workers started to grind out the stump. They ground down only a couple of inches when sparks flew from the hole.  The worker had hit a metal rod of some kind, so he refused to go any further.  (Later investigation -- after the tree removal people had left -- revealed that the metal actually was a buried two-foot piece of re-rod that for some strange reason ended up entangled in the tree roots.) So what we were left with is a whole lot of stump just below the surface of the ground.

The excavated root is about eight inches across.

Since today dawned sunny and in the high 60's with a slight breeze, this was a beautiful day to work outside.  We knew that one part of the stump was showing above the ground, so he started to dig that part out first.

The root curves back toward the main part
of the trunk and root ball of the tree.

As he followed the root, it lead both downward and back to the left where the main stump had been.  Once most of the dirt was cleared away, Rick took the SawsAll and started to cut out the roots.  The first cut went fine, but halfway through the second cut, the saw blade broke.

This root turned out to be a blade eater!

Off to Lowe's he went while I stayed home and continued to "excavate" our arboreal dig. I found more roots the further I went.

Chunks of trunk lie next to their original position.

I should have known the dig would go well.
The sun was in the right place when I took this
pictures, so the sunlight seems to be streaming
right to the hole. The work was blessed from above!

When Rick came home, we went through three more blades just to get the worst of the roots out.  The main trunk part is now below ground enough where we can plant grass above it, and the area that we want to plant the palm tree is somewhat cleared.

Anyone who drove past the house this afternoon
would never know what was removed from the
dirt patch left from all of our work.

I don't know if we will have to dig deeper in order to plant the palm next year, but for now we are just going to let nature take its course and hope that the roots start to rot out before we try to plant the palms in the fall.