The Battle of the Yard continues…

Tonight I was getting the grill up to meat-charring temperature while talking to my mother-in-law on the phone.  I came around the corner and noticed an unappealing tree that had been left alone for long enough to take root and grow in between three nicely shaped bushes in my back yard.  This was very much like the smaller ones that I removed from the front garden, only left to take root for much longer.  It had grown to a size of about 8-9′ tall and 3″ in diameter.  It was shallowly rooted so it almost came entirely up by just tipping it over, but part of the root had grown under one of the landscaping bushes so I had to cut off part of the root.

So I got my small hacksaw and my garden pruners and set myself to work.  I got about 3/4 of the way through the root, but the blade started catching on the extra sappy root that was left over and I ended up snapping my blade in an attempt to get it free to start over.  So then I went at it with the garden pruners, but I realized after I got done that the hook of the pruners had gotten twisted and they too were now ruined.

Luckily, I got both at Wal-Mart and they were cheap.  So I won the war over this unattractive tree… now I just need to get some lawn bags to accumulate the small pile of debris in the corner of my lot for trash pickup.