Vent: Took me 4 hours to remove a single dead pine in my own yard in Phoenix

I do this for a living but my own property is a different story. This pine had been dead for about a year and I figured it would be a quick 30 minute job. Wrong. The base was wrapped around a buried water line and the roots had fused with some old concrete from a previous patio. Ended up digging out the stump by hand for 3 hours after the top came down. Guess I got too confident since I'm not charging myself. Has anyone else wasted a whole afternoon on a tree that should have taken no time?

2 comments

2 Comments

tylerw926d ago

Knew a buddy who spent six hours trying to dig out a pyracantha stump in his backyard. Turns out it had a massive root system that went under his concrete walkway and he had to chip away at the slab with a sledgehammer. He texted me a photo of himself covered in mud and sweat with a thumbs down.

caseyw126d ago

Funny how that works, isn't it. The things we do every day for other people feel like second nature, but the second it's our own stuff suddenly every hidden problem shows up. Kind of like how mechanics always drive cars with check engine lights on. There's just something about knowing you don't have to answer to a client that makes you ignore the obvious signs until you're stuck in a three hour hole. I bet that concrete was waiting there your whole ownership just to mess with you.