I woke up this morning with a sore back, stiff legs, and raw, bruised, and blistered hands after spending all day yesterday attacking a landscaping problem in our backyard. A while back I chopped down two medium-sized evergreen trees near our oak with the intention of eventually digging out enough of the root systems to be able to put a border around the oak and seed the remaining area. This process of extricating a tangled knot of mature roots and laying brick took the better part of ten hours (though things picked up considerably when we went out and bought an ax part way through the process – as opposed to using a handsaw and shovel).

This first picture is a look at the project part way through the process. It’s a little fuzzy, but you should be able to see the ridiculous number of roots I ended up fighting with. The next two pictures are me blasting away with an ax at the pine stump and at the partially buried roots. The dogs weren’t much help as they kept wandering over to plop down on the fresh dirt. A few more action shots on Flickr if you’re interested.

And finally, here’s a look at the nearly finished product (wood chips to be added) and a look at our cheery sky later in the evening. I have more digging and earth moving to do today, but I think I’m going to make it way less intense than yesterday (Frisbee break at 4 pm!)