Stump work

I don't like days like this. I get stuff done but I don't think I get enough stuff done.

My day started off lighting a fire in my wood stove. I hadn't done that for a number of days and the house was getting on the cool side. After making pancakes for breakfast I called and talked with my brother for an hour. I read a magazine and then sewed up my torn pants.

Then I finally went outside around 2 pm. For some people the day would be half over, but not for this nite owl / late riser.

I decided to work on a few tree stumps as open burning season ends May 1. I planned to dig around a tree stump near the corral so it would be easier to burn. As I dug around part of the stump I realized I could remove part of the tree trunk by using an axe to sever some side roots.

The more I removed and the more I dug the more I found I could sever roots. Yup, this was another one of those trees without a tap root. I had planned on removing part of the trunk and burning the rest but I ended up digging and cutting all of the stump.

The stump is now gone but I spent over two and a half hours on the project.

I went inside for a late lunch.

Then I gathered up some small rocks I had uncovered when I had cleared the manure from the corral and when I had dug up the tree stump. I filled 2/3 of a five gallon pail with the rocks.

I checked my gopher traps (caught another one). I also found a new "village" to the SE of the other villages. 'Bad' in that I have another village and new holes to watch. 'Good' in that I am putting pressure on the gophers. This new village is in an area I did not drag a harrow over and therefore has a little more grass for cover and may be why one or more gophers moved there.

I also seen a few other 'villages' where the holes are being reopened. And a few other holes were opened/reopened near existing traps. Some gophers are catching on about the traps.

The gophers are not going down without a fight.

All told I spent an hour and a half with the rocks and gopher checking. I had planned on fixing my cattle feeder trough today as the cattle last year had broken the bottom of it out. Instead all I got done was to remove the broken bottom, then it was time to watch one of my favorite TV shows, "The Amazing Race".

So I didn't get several tree stumps dug around or any stumps burnt today or the feeder trough rebuilt.

It is raining now and the forecast is for cool and off-and-on rain for the next few days. We need the rain but I have stuff I want to get done and am feeling a little stressed about it.

Here are before and after pictures of the stump. In the first photo I had already removed part of the stump when I took the photo. You can also see why the stump remained undetected until I ran over it with a harrow as it was at ground level to a touch below.

The pile in the second photo is the parts of the stump. In the photo it is hard to get a scale of the hole's depth or the height of the stump parts.