New House Blog: Episode XXXII - The Second Battle Of The Stump

No, the stump from this Episode didn't grow back and cause us to have to re-exorcise it.  There was a second stump we had to battle, but in the same way that the local news shows put the most interesting stories at the end, we will be putting the action-packed account of the battle at the end of this Episode.  Unlike with the local news shows, however, you can skip past all of the boring stuff in this Episode and go right to the exciting ending. :)

Brick Work

We decided to spruce up the front yard's water spigot area with some tumbled pavers.  We also made an area for the hose caddy to rest.  Pictures are below.

Look at that awesome brick work.

It's just as awesome with the hose caddy.

Brick Work Again

We also built a brick area for our back yard's remote spigot and hose caddy.  But first we had to shorten the spigot pipe by several feet so it would actually be useful (it used to stick up out of the ground about 3.5').  Here's a picture of the spigot as it was, and a random concrete and steel pipe sculpture (said sculpture was donated to the Zanker landfill recently).

One problem with this spigot setup was the leak where the pipe came out of the ground, which made this spigot unusable. Fortunately, there's another spigot by the back sliding door that controls water flow to this spigot, so we could/can turn off the flow to the remote spigot to keep it from leaking and flooding the back yard.








Here's a picture of the new brickwork and shortened pipe in its first iteration.

And here it is with the first hose connected.

Yes, the first hose.  This hose was purchased largely (entirely) based on the claims on its packaging.  It claimed to be made specifically for hose reels, and it did indeed look good on our hose reel, all shiny green with a grey stripe, but it was the kinkingest hose we had ever met.  It kinked up when we tried to wind it up on the hose caddy.  It kinked up when we unrolled it to water some plants.  It had to go.  Also having to go was the old spigot: it leaked, and we don't really like leaky spigots (both the pipe and the old spigot were leaky).


Here you can see the new spigot conncted to the new new hose.

Yes, that's an ant trap you see, an ineffective ant trap.

And here's the new hose, nicely wound around the hose caddy.  Also new is the 8-position watering wand attached to the hose.

This is how it appears in sunlight.

This is how it appears in shady light.

Happy Miles

As you can see, Mr. Miles is settling in just fine.  Here he is cuddled up in his favorite Mariners blanket.

Happy, sleepy Miles

No More Painting!

With the completion of the painting of Bish's office we are done with all of our planned painting.  Bish is quite happy with how it turned out.  Here are some pictures. We feel it only fair to warn you that those who seriously thought that Bish should leave the office painted as it was in this Episode will be seriously disappointed.  All others will be thoroughly pleased.

Bish describes this paint job as being ocean-wavey, grass-hilly, and blue-skyey.  The bottom, ocean color is called Mermaid Harbor (paint colors were chosen for their colors, not their goofy names),  the middle, grassy color is called Dublin, and the top, sky color is called Jamaican Sea.  We're eager to see how it looks once the furniture is set up.









The Second Battle Of The Stump

And now for the story you've all been waiting for, unless you scrolled past all the boring stuff above to get here - the Second Battle Of The Stump.

In one remote corner of our back yard lurked a tree stump. Unlike the first stump, which stood tall and proud, this second stump skulked, showing only a few inches of itself above-ground, cleverly concealing its true size and root system from prying eyes.  We had nothing against this particular stump, but it was in the way of our future garden and so it had to be removed.  Some readers may feel tempted to point out that there are machines that can remove tree stumps, but we never even considered the use of such a machine.  We like to do some things manually, and it's just a lot simpler to not have to find, rent, transport, and return a machine that we do not own (a lot cheaper, too). On to the battle.

This is the peaceful scene as it appeared shortly before the battle.   Returning to action are our three frinds, Longspade, Shortstaff, and Spike; and appearing for the first time in a landscaping Episode is Bari.  If you forgot who is who you can refresh your memory in this Episode and this Episode.  Longspade went in first on a reconnaissance mission to probe the limits of the stump's trunk and root system.  After the initial digging we had only discovered that that the trunk extended underground a ways and that this was not going to be an easy battle.  Indeed, this was not a battle of tactics and strategy - it was a battle of endurance and wearing down the enemy with relentless force and attack.

The stump after initial excavation

Shortstaff and Longspade continued to prob the stump's defences, and its grip on the Earth, but they could not discover the root system.  It was Spike's turn to join the battle.  Spike was able to delve deeper and apply more force than either Shortstaff or Longspade, and before long a root was discovered.  It was the moment Bari had been waiting for.  A few whacks and the root was severed.  But where were the other roots.  Spike had to step up the pressure and energy.  A second root was found, severed by Bari, then a third.  But the energy expenditure was extreme.  Could the team keep up this relentless pace, or would they succumb to fatigue?  The team persevered to the end.  The final root was severed and the killing blow was delivered by Bari.  The stump had lost.  Bish let out two yells of triumph.

This is the victorious Bari, embedded in the enemy's hide.  In the background can be seen, left to right, Shortstaff and Longspade, heroic members of the stump-fighting team.



Bishops 2, Stumps 0