Rob versus the stump!

We have numerous areas in our yard which are weeds instead of grass. Our grass is pretty weed infested, which I don't really mind that much. I try to avoid the use of fertilizers because of their effect on the Great Lakes. But some areas of our yard are just weeds. Such as this area:

It once had many more bushes, but they have slowly died. We cut the last ones down this summer, and it left a large area that was once covered with bushes that is now covered with weeds. So we sprayed it with Round-up and waited a week or two. Now it looks like this:


Rob and I have raked it and put the waste into our compost. Now we are working on the stuff that didn't rake up. There are many weed roots still sticking up, which I've been pulling. While I do that, Rob rips out stumps with his bare hands. He started doing this a few years ago, but this year, with his new upper body strength he has developed from his tri-weekly Y visits, he was able to pull up a new personal-best-size stump.

In this picture, he'd already been hacking at it awhile.

Eventually, he just started pulling. And pulling. And pulling.

And he got it! It was a two parter. There were two bushes whose roots were connected.


We have a few more stumps to rip out and some more weed roots to pull, then the weather should be just right for spreading our grass seed.