Easter weekend in the yard

To start my weekend off Saturday morning, I decided to try my hand at sprouting. I got some seeds, and gave it whirl, what do you know, in only two days the peas are starting to sprout!! Very cool to see, I love to see seeds and plants begin to grow, I am such a nerd, but this is very exciting for me! After I got my sprouts going, I began cleaning up much of the junk in my backyard. While doing that, I noticed one of the many giant squirrels in the area, hanging out in the tree, just chattering away at me. Needless to say, I had a bit of a conversation with the dubbed, King of the Squirrels. I told him if I catch him eating my seeds, bulbs, flowers, corn, or any other said veggies I will be growing, that he just might make a tasty little meal. He quickly reminded me, that he can dig up any bulbs and seeds and replant them wherever he wishes, AND that he will eat whatever he wants. About that time, Sir Artemis himself graced us with his presence. I think the king of the squirrels got the idea of just who I meant the tasty meal for, and bounded out of tree to the squirrel super highway (aka the power lines above the yard). He scurried off to the neighbors tree where he belongs. Somehow, I feel I lost that battle, I'm going to have to figure out how to deal with the squirrels at some point. That being handled for the time being, I managed to load 2 full truck loads of old wood, concrete, trash, and other debris from the yard. I still have many more to go, but it was good start.

After the squirrel debate, I decided it was time to tackle a few things in the front yard. The first being the old mailbox post, it had to go. I got my trusty shovel, and began to dig that sucker out. It came up pleasantly without much of a fight. I moved on to the large evergreen shrub, I don't know what the real name of this plant it is, its just what I have always called them. I got my sawzall, shovel, ipod and got to work. It took me 4 1/2 hours, and 3 truck loads to the recycling center to get to the roots of this nasty bush! I don't know why anyone plants these things! In cutting it back to get to the roots, I pulled out one whole garbage back of trash, things like beer bottles, beer cans, shoes, combs, baseballs, a whole Mcdolands bag full of trash, and other fine things people stuck in there as they walked by! ugh!

It was monster! It grew at least 3 feet up into the yard, and a couple of feet into the neighbors driveway. I broke two blades on this bush, but I managed to defeat it!

WOOOHOOO! here is the yard without that bush taking up the entire corner. Even though I had a lot of cleaning to do, and the roots to still get out, I was very pleased with the days progress!

Arty (aka Sir Artemis) seemed pleased too, or he was just taking a break from taunting the squirrels! After this hard work, it was a much needed break, a cold margarita and a quick dinner with Mom, then home to rest for more work in the morning!
The next day I got to pulling out the roots. Obviously, I am not strong enough to just dig them out, so lucky for me, I just had to get the chain from work and use my truck to pull them out! Such fun!!!

Here is my second root, I actually got two roots with this one pull, it was awesome! Yes, this is me pulling the roots and taking pictures at the same time, am I talented or what! hee hee, I am sure the neighboors think I am nuts, but who cares!

This is a shot of the bottom of the big ass root I just pulled up, that one took a lot of rocking back and forth and gently getting it to come up, but in the end I won!
This is the last root ball I got up, this one almost got away from me, but I managed to get out and rework it so I got the whole thing in one bite! It's so much fun pulling out these damn evergreens, I really hate these bushes! It felt like a great accomplishment to get this done! I was impressed that I got this done over the weekend, and even more impressed I managed to get these giant roots into my truck by myself :).
Here is the last breath for the bush, it tried to hold on to its cozy spot in the ground, but it was a losing battle for Mr. Stinky Evergreen. Four pulls of the chain, and viola that sucker is no more!

AAHHhh now, I can stand back and look at my yard dreaming of all the things I want to plant and change now that those two big eye sores are gone. I can't believe I forgot to get a before shot of the mailbox post, but you get the idea :). Finished the weekend off with a quick, and quiet Easter dinner at the folks house. I took many pictures, but this one for some reason speaks to me, I call it Peeps under glass...poor peeps :) Happy Easter everyone, and happy happy Spring!