Stump Removal

For my birthday, in July, Andy was nice enough to not only give me an amazing laptop but he also used his chain saw to get rid of the pine tree in the front yard that I absolutely hated.  This stump sat in our front yard all summer.  I didn't really mind it - I hated the pine needles and they were no longer going to be a problem.  I thought it would be fun to carve Andy + Tina in the tree and if you look close you can see that I took some bark off in an attempt.  For your information - pine trees have A LOT of sap.  I need to do some research to find out how they can use the wood for furniture . . .

Skip took mercy on Andy and came to his rescue with some big equipment to get the stump out.  I think boys like to play with big toys!
Skip was also really patient with the kids.  They all thought it would be a lot of fun to "help" him operate/ride on the heavy equipment.

The occasion was memorable enough to make in on film - it doesn't take much to get our family excited!

I do have to admit that I was pretty interested to see how it would all work out but I didn't want anyone to know so I found a little bit of yard work that needed some attention not far away.  I now have almost 95% of the my flower beds winterized.  And, as much as I like to put flowers in the ground in the spring I like to pull them out in the fall.  

Skip did amazing work and got the stump out in record time.  We have a gas line that was only about 6 feet from the stump.  I was pretty nervous that a root would have grown around it and we would have a broken gas line and the nightmare that would follow.  I don't know why I wasted me time worrying.  He made it look easy.  The other thing that made the process so good was Andy's brother Tom willingness to use a sod cutter and roll up the grass.  So, after Skip was finished we did a little raking and rolled the  sod back down.  It worked so good!  Thanks for your help Skip and thanks to Tracy and children for sacrificing another morning without him.