The front yard has a gentle downward slope (as many Portland homes do), and I hate it. The plan is to build a retaining wall that we can then fill in with dirt and plants. We went out to take measurements last week and suddenly remembered the large stump that we inherited. Hmmm... Not knowing what kind of tree it had been, we didn't know how deep or aggressive the roots might be. We went at it with some shovels until a neighbor came by shaking his head knowingly. "You won't get that out", he said. "It was a huge holly and I cut it down." Why anyone would do that is beyond me. He suggested that we call his friend who has a stump chipper who might take care of it for $100 or so. We've been sleeping on it. It is in a corner of the yard where the wall would need to go. So, I bought Doug a Sawzall for his birthday and I think we might just go crazy on that old stump ourselves!
I have found it very frustrating that everything we want to do with our property seems to require that we do something ELSE first. Wagh! Wagh! That is the cry of the new home owner.
