There's this one thing in the backyard that's been driving me absolutely bonkers.
No, not the rented rototiller; please, I wish that thing were in the yard right now actually.
It's hard to see and get a full grasp of what's going on, but that dead bunch of what appears to be merely twigs in the upper right of the photo there. I should have taken a "before" photo but I was too bothered to get the camera.
Yeah, I just don't have a good photo of the monstrosity and how bad it was. Heh, this photo is when we realized we didn't have enough paver base on our patio installation day. Heh. We loooooove our new patio, by the way. Love.
So, what is that brown mess? It's some kind of tree-like thing that grew into and through the chain link fence and fence post. We took out that fence last summer on a super hot day but couldn't even begin to tackle this massive mind-boggler. We did give it one feeble attempt in the fall, but, yeah. Feeble is the operative word. I think we stood in front of it, looked at it, looked at each other, then walked away.
And it's been staring at me and bugging me ever since. It laughed at me and pointed every time I walked by it, mocking and teasing me. Nah nah-nee poo poo, I'm still here, ha ha! It was a huge blight and an embarrassment. The bazillion dead branches were like little swords sticking out everywhere like five hundred Edward Scissorhands.
It was pretty unbelievable how entangled it was with and through the chain link. It literally enveloped the links in multiple places, from the base all the way up through three thick branches. Plus, the base of the tree thing was inches from the metal fence post, making cutting one or the other all the way through a feat unto itself, too scary to try.
So, ok, it was the twisty mostly dead tree thing, grown through, around and into the chain link fence, through and under parts of the wood fence, and the antique metal fence post, right? I'm not sure exactly what came over me on Thursday to cause its annihilation, but hey.....
I guess I just got so sick of looking it and it wasn't going away on its own. I was bound and determined to get that thing outta there. It took pruning shears, a hand saw, a grinder, four metal cut-off wheels, a sledgehammer, a chain saw, and two hours. In the words of Hawk, "he gone."
After the last big chunk came out, not without a major fight mind you, it was a drop-the-mic, back-away-slowly moment. I was talking to myself, out loud, parading around the yard, woozy from adrenaline -- I couldn't believe it was finally gone. Unreal -- I, me, I actually got it out.
And for never having used a chain saw before, I couldn't believe I was still in one piece! (It's a small electric chain saw Mike's dad lent to us, not a big scary monster truck gas one. Either way, I was a tad nervous. Now my mom is upset for having read that. I'm fine!)
I almost gave up several times. It just seemed so impossible. I packed up the tools twice. Hailey kept swinging by, slinky, waggy tail, hey mommy, could ya stop with the scary tool noises, can we go inside now?! But I knew if I started it and left it without giving it every possible shot I had, I'd not only be annoyed with the ugly dead tree fence entanglement more so, I'd be annoyed with myself.
What a feeling of accomplishment though, I'll tell ya. That thing was a beast.
The lesson here: don't let your yard get overgrown. Well, in our case, it was a neglected property for years and now it's our job to clean it up. And: never give up.
Well, off to mow the weeds back there.
Happy Father's Day!
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