Garden Update: Me vs the Dead Tree

Before I get to the tree, here's a photo of the adorable little ceramic bunny I bought for my garden:


And I'm glad I cleared the dead leaves from the day lilies before the art show... here they are now:

I still need to dig up the weed roots, but that'll come... eventually.

Okay, here's the tree:

You may (or may not) remember that I started digging it up last year, and managed to get a number of roots exposed before the snow flew. Well, the snow is now gone, the roots are still exposed, and the tree is still standing.

With the assumption that the dead tree with it's roots partially exposed will be less well anchored than the live tree that is thicker, I attached the come-along to both of them (once I found some chain), and started winching.

Not even a hint of budging. So I hacked at the roots some more, and removed more dirt.

Dang, that's a thick root. And spongey wood is hard to chop. I eventually did get through that root, and chopped through some others too.

Still didn't budge. This is going to take significantly more effort. (And I can already tell that I'm going to *feel* today's effort tomorrow.)

I winched that come-along so tight, I bent a link on the chain I borrowed from mom:

Whoops.

Cheeky little chickadee!

While I was winching & chopping, I moved the bird feeder over so that it wasn't in the way. When I was done for the day, I topped it up and hung it back up, but before I had removed the come-along and chains. As I was working at the chain (whose openable link was reluctant to unscrew), I heard the buzzing of wings as something flew to the feeder. I paused for a second, then looked up to see a chickadee, no more than a foot from my face. It flew off, but returned a moment later once I wasn't looking at it again. So I stepped back a pace, and took out my camera... and got the above shot.

I also sat and enjoyed the sunshine for an hour, and listened to the birds (and a ... leaf blower?). It was a nice day, but it feels like I didn't accomplish anything despite all of my effort.

Next weekend I'll work on the raised vegetable beds, so that I'll at least feel like I've accomplished something. :P