It’s a good time of year to do some yard work. Every year, I try to do a little to improve the state of my property, although I’m not entirely sure I’ve actually improved much. At the very least, I like to get one flower bed cleaned out and ready to grow sunflowers.

Sunflowers are big and optimistic. For the most part, my yard is not.

A few days ago, I watched a guy try to pull a stump out of his yard. Certainly, just after the frost leaves the ground is the right time to do it. The soil is about as loose as it is likely to get. He had a chain attached to his trailer-hitch on his pickup truck and the other end was somehow attached to the stump. He almost broke the chain. The stump didn’t move.
Several people appeared out of the woodwork to offer advice, neighbours from across the street and several doors down. They stood and watched the strain on the chain.
They lit cigarettes and offered advice. A chainsaw was plunged into the ground to cut off some roots (and to ruin a chainsaw). Lots of smoke and dust blossomed out of the ground. Many smiling faces watched while the truck was revved again and the stump trailed along behind.

I was glad no one was maimed.

The communal mind saved the day. I think he could have had success with a heavier chain at his first attempt. But maybe not, since he just cut the tree last fall. The roots were not at all withered.

I, luckily, have no stumps to remove. Well, I have stumps, but they are low on the priority list and they are very close to the house. Someone thought it was a good idea to plant juniper trees a foot away from the house and let them get twenty-five feet tall. I cut them down.

Almost everyone will agree that trees are nice but roots are evil.

That reminds me of a time when I was younger and I was helping someone make a vegetable garden in his back yard. For this activity, he had gone out and purchased a tiller. Well, truthfully, he saw a tiller at a yard sale and bought it and then decided he should have a garden. Really, what good is a tiller without a garden?
I was there mostly for moral support and to transport bags of sheep manure from the driveway to the back yard. He had an area marked off with wooden stakes and baling twine. As I carried bags to the back yard, I could hear the tiller start and then whine and then stop. Every time I actually saw him, he was poking at something or other on the tiller and mumbling under his breath. There were forty-five bags of manure to carry, in all, and then some flats of cucumber and tomato seedlings. By the time I had all of that moved, he had the tiller almost completely dismantled on the grass.
“What’s wrong with that?”” I asked.
“Someone took it apart.”
“Well, yeah.”
“No, I mean someone messed it up.”
“Did you put any gas in it?”

I was starting to suspect I wasn’t going to get paid.

But he gave me some money and sent me on my way. I can’t say it was a bad day, really, although it would have gone better for me if he’d had a wheelbarrow.

It probably would have gone better for him if he’d had a pick and shovel.