Ding Dong The Privets Are Dead!

While Helen was at Science Olympiad on Saturday morning, I decided to pull up the privet bushes on the side of our yard.

We've always hated those bushes. We used to trim them into a hedge, but they were always pretty sparse looking, so we started letting them grow out, but then they would grow so big that we had to cut them back each year. It was a pain to cut them back after a full year of growth and there was always a lot of debris to deal with.

We've talked about getting rid of them for many years, but it was pretty much a spur of the moment thing to finally pull them up. I hadn't even discussed it with Helen. The boys weren't sure what was going on. They would stop their XBox game every once in while to check on me.

The first couple of bushes came out fairly easy. I was using a long braided steel bike lock cable hooked to the van, but it broke on the third bush. I then made the first of several trips to the hardware store. I eventually ended up with 20 feet of heavy steel chain. It's never as easy as you think it's going to be. 

I had to interrupt my project to pick up Helen at the Science Olympiad in the afternoon, but got right back on it when we got home. My neighbor saw me working and came over. He brought me a mattock and told me that I should probably cover the chain with a blanket because he had seen a friend snap a chain and break the back window of his truck. The mattock was key. I had hoped to avoid too much hard labor and just pull out the bushes with the van, but those roots were strong and I ended up having to cut around each bush before I could pull it out.

Eventually it became a family affair

I was attaching the chain to the tow frame. I wasn't sure it was the best decision since the frame is just bolted in and really just made to carry a bike rack. I was half expecting the frame to get pulled out, but I gambled and it held. 

Derek thought it was fun at first, but it wasn't too long before he was on the sofa complaining he was beat. We let him rest some but made him get up and help us finish.

Look at my big strong frontier woman helping out the boys. She's no dainty little kept housewife.