You Dig?

One of my greatest regrets is that I didn't buy a backhoe when I first moved here.  I could have been able to afford back then and now it is a fading dream.

I get tired when I look back and consider how much digging I've done over the years.  By hand, I've dug out a silted pond.  I dug the foundation and crawl space of a large addition to the house.  I've dug out the ground to level an area for the green house.  I've dug sod to create countless gardens.  I dug hundreds of feet of drainage trenches.  Ive dug and filled several trails through the hill on the back end of the property.  I've planted trees and shrubs and dug hundreds of feet of trenches to bury cables and water lines.  With a wheel barrow and a shovel I've moved no less that 50 yards a 3/4 minus stone, 15 yards a 2 inch drainage stone. 15 yards of hog fuel and 25 yards of sand.  Add to that the constant manure management, I figure that I spend most of my life digging, hauling and dumping something.

My most recent dig was an annoying willow stump.  It was once an ornamental tree that was broken by the 2007 storm.  I cut it down and the roots regained life as it knew it before the ornament a graft.  It had to go, so with an adz, a spade and a chain saw I began my assault.  I had most of the nastiness exposed and I was getting tired so I pondered an easier way to get this thing out of the ground when I cast a gaze upon the tow hooks of my 3/4 ton.

Did I ever mention that I love chains and I have a substantial chain collection?  I went to the shed and pulled out a good length and dragged it to the stump and threaded it around the gnarly roots and attached the two ends to the hooks.  I slipped the truck into 4 wheel drive and the stump came out as smoothly as removing a tooth from a speed freak.  Finally, I was able to mechanize a digging project, but I still want a backhoe.