Friday I had off and spent the sunny afternoon in the back yard shoveling gravel and attempting to dig out the roots from the tree we had cut down. I'd gone to Target in the morning and bought a small weeding tool that I thought I could use to get the root out. But the more I dug, the better I was able to see what a giant root the tree had. The tree had been planted in the very back corner of the yard, and its massive root system had nowhere to go except for right under the patio.
Dave thought he could get it out with an ax. (At Home Depot, he wanted to buy lime and lots of plastic sheeting in addition to the ax to make it look like we were planning a murder.) After a few hours of vigorous ax swinging, Dave's hands and arms felt like jelly but the biggest parts of the root were out. We now have a hole for a tree!
