In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 267 of 1154
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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SIX, I hope you're still feeling better and haven't gone backwards with your recovery. There is such a thing as a stump grinder which can be rented, but it's a beast of a machine, dangerous and probably expensive. Aside from that, no magic solutions that I know of ... unless you want to hitch up a pair of oxen and have them pullit for you!
Yeah. I'm feeling good. A little achey, but nothing bad.
I'm thinking about getting a spade and digging all around. I'm more worried about the roots than the stumps themselves. These things are very clearly alive under the surface although except for the "suckers" they try growing a few times in spring and summer you wouldn't know it. I'll bet they're harboring a lot of my ant problem. They seem to love it down there.
I'm a bit worried I might have contracted some sort of poison ivy or something yesterday. This will not be good if that's the case. I had it once and it spread all over my body within days. Late last night my right palm was severely itchy before I went to sleep. I woke up this morning and I have spots on it now. They don't seem to have spread anywhere else from my palm yet, and it's been about 25 years since I had a poison ivy reaction, so I'm not sure yet what I'm dealing with here. Hopefully it's nothing.
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Sealing windows ... hmmm. We recently had to face that problem since the trim under one of our windows rotted and needed replacement. Normally there is tar paper or Tyvek tucked around the window underneath the stucco or siding. Do you see evidence of sheet waterproofing material around the window? In other words, is the fault with JUST the window, or was the siding put up without underlying waterproofing.
These things can hardly be classified as windows. I don't even really know how to go about explaining the hack job that was originally done without showing you pictures of it. They're aluminum tracks screwed into built out wood blocks that hold those old 70's style single pane glass garbage... yanno, the type you can easily swap out for screens (if you have them).
The front is even worse. Huge slats are put up in front of all 4 windows that look really ugly from the street (either for privacy or to keep the sun out???). So the sills on the front are very, very wide for a window. What's worse, is that they grade away from the house only for the front 80%, come to a peak about 1 1/2" in front of the shitty windows, and then grade into the windows on the back. (Yes... this is how the aluminum covering was designed and installed originally). No wonder I got about 1000 gallons in there when I power washed everything a few years back.
The roof overhangs are at least 18", so unless the rain is falling sideways, the walls and windows seem to keep dry. The problem would be the snow and snow drifts, followed by the melting once it accumulates up there. This thing was designed to take on water from day one.
Right now I need something that is reasonably pretty that keeps the water out 100%. I do think I'm going to replace the windows with something legitimate, maybe next year, but I need to have the floor installed before I even consider it. I'm sure the city is going to get in my business if I replace the windows since it's so obvious from the street and probably force me to get a permit. Annoying as that will be, it won't be a huge deal other than the cost of a stupid permit once the floor is solid and covered with something.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
BRENDA, I feel your pain! (literally). You mentioned that your legs are getting better since you can now put them up, which implies that you have leg swelling. Is that true?
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
I've had more feet swelling over the last couple of years then leg and knee pain. Had a case of varicose viens treated when I was in my late 30s through early 40s. Saline treatments.
Things have improved since I've moved as I am walking in a much flatter area now. But too much walking and I still get the pain. When I watch tv, I have an upside down trash can that I put my feet up on, which has helped a lot. I wasn't really able to put my feet up in that other place and with the hills. Not a good combo.
There was a lot of hurt on my legs and knee joints in the last two years that I was living there and so time will ease these aches and pains.
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Was going to take some stuff up to the thrift store but not going to today. Had to overdo it a bit at work yesterday, so that maybe a chore for tomorrow.
Anyways got to get out and get a birthday present and card for a friend in Alberta. His birthday is around Turkey Day up here and I usually hit his birthday or miss it. I am hoping this year to be early.
So later peeps.
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Centre that I go to his having a giant birthday party for everyone whos birthday is in September. Not sure if I am going to it or not.
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I've dug out a few large stumps in my time and it's arduous but doable. The trick I found is to either have a hand saw you don't mind trashing, or a sawzall blade you don't mind trashing, along with a spade and a large crow bar. Also, with my soil (clay) it helped to water the dirt a day or two ahead of time to be neither hard brick nor sticky goo.
Dig in the softened dirt some distance from the stump till you hit a root, and dig around it a bit so you get some clearance. Take out your saw and saw the root. Scraping through all the dirt is what damages the blade, which why you'll never again use it for anything else but removing stumps. Repeat till you have all the roots sawn off.
A large stump with dirt attached is very, very heavy, which is why you'll need a crow bar and maybe a friend to get it out of the hole.
I removed 2 large tree stumps and about 40' of boxwood stumps that way, but it was very arduous, and took multiple days per tree stump. (The jacaranda stump was the most problematic, since its roots didn't fan out near the surface in a regular pattern. They dove straight down, re-emerged twisted into its other roots etc. But the pine tree stump was relatively straightforward and uncomplicated.) So for the last (ash tree) stump I called in a company that did stump grinding.
A recent episode of Ask This Old House also recommends that procedure.
ETA: but I just checked and here anyway you can now rent a stump grinder and do it yourself.
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I've got everything but the spade. I broke a bore blade yesterday, but the other one lasted a lot longer when I just let the tool do the work instead of forcing stuff. They're really heavy duty and I have either 4 or 6 more (i can't remember if there were 2 or 3 in a pack).
Home Depot has a stump grinder for rent at nearly $200 for a day. Plus I'd need to pay for delivery and pickup. That's not an option for me.
So the roots will die if the stump is gone?
I'm not getting anything done today. Sat in the porch for about an hour just spinning the wheels. I have no idea what I'm going to do about the windows. My friend called and pissed me off too. Gave me shit that my brother still hasn't picked up the flooring, then when I said there was still a lot to do before the floor goes in he tells me what I need to do on the windows even though he has no idea how ghetto they are. I really need him to come and work with me on these things. I don't want to throw a ton of money at them for a temporary solution in the case that I end up ripping it all out and putting legit stuff in down the road, but I also want to make sure that they are water tight before the floor goes in, even if that means sealing them all in and making them unusable.
I'm glad he didn't ask me if I was coming to work for him this weekend, because I probably would have yelled at him. I'm obviously in a shitty mood today, but I'm really starting to feel like I'm being taken advantage of here.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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"So the roots will die if the stump is gone?"
It depends on the tree species! Crape myrtle* is notorious for resprouting as are willows*! legume trees (mimosa* and acacia* are vigorous, jacaranda isn't as persistent etc), populus trees (poplar*, cottonwood, aspen, etc), along with privet* (the 'lucidum' species can grow up to 30' tall and look like a multi-trunked tree), and ash* are ones I've either seen or had experience with. The ones with * can be god awful to get rid of.
But if you've had the stumps for a while, and nothing has resprouted either around the stump, off of the stump, or from a root further away. I think it should be OK.
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Time to come clean, I suppose, for Science. 
They're maples. Planted very close to my house. By me.
I'd say that the neighbor that got foreclosed on two doors down behind me was trolling me when she told me they were "Rose of Sharon", but she had them planted all along her nice fence in the back yard. She also gave me most of the hastas in front of my house.
She was an idiot. I was an idiot.
So yeah, I willingly planted 5 maple trees right up along side my house, and another in the front of the porch. They were tiny and looked nice for about two years, then they (obviously) grew out of control and I cut them all down.
I'm constantly cutting away new growth around them. They've been stumps for at least 5 years now. Yesterday, I had cut down as much as I could of one of the three remaning ones through the fence of the same house that new neighbors are living there. I'd never met the guy before but later when I heard him mowing the lawn I flagged him down and let him know that he's got trees growing there and they're going to destroy his fence and his garage if he doesn't cut them down.
Somehow yesterday, I really screwed up again too. I'm probably going to have to go to the clinic. I got poison something-or-other. It was just on my right palm last night and into this morning. By mid afternoon I had a few bumps on the outside of my left hand. now I've got one on my neck and another on my bellybutton. The last time this happened I was still in my teens and I looked like I had measels. The first batch of steroids the doctor gave me did nothing and I ended up having to take horse tablets to get rid of it. It lasted two to three weeks.
I think I'm fucked. :(
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Oh crap about the medical stuff. Please let us know how you're doing. I certainly can't help from here, but if it cheers you up at all I can root for you from the sidelines!
Here's how to get rid of maple resprouts: (hint - it's chemical warfare)
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/kill-maple-sprouts-29896.html
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Yeah. It's just poison oak or poison ivy. This time, just like the last time, I got it when I was scratched by something. The bumps first sprouted up around the cut on my back when I was a kid, and about a week later my entire body was a blochy mess. It ruined the last month of summer break for me.
I got some fairly superficial scratches on my palm while working yesterday and by night time I could feel the itching and slight bumps. Now they're blisters that are going to pop eventually. There's not a lot on my body yet, but if it gets me like it did last time it won't be long now.
Thanks for the stump info. Going to take care of that when time allows. :)
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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