What was I thinking...?

...when I knowingly planted a mesquite tree over the water line and the electrical supply to the barn? Well, I was thinking that the tree would live forever, or at least our lifetime, that's what. But, thanks to sloppy pruning on my part, the tree got a bacterial infection and was very sick. Nevertheless it saddens me to cut down a tree, but I thought I had better do it before it tried to leaf out again and I would be tempted to save it when it really was beyond hope.

So this morning we cut it down and tried to pull out the stump with our small John Deere tractor. No budging, in spite of the fact that the tree had only been there 4 years. We were more successful digging the stump out with our friend Dave's backhoe, and of course on the last scoop Dan pulled up the electrical wire and broke the waterline. At least I had had the foresight to shut the water off.


Our "small" job turned into an "entire morning and part of the afternoon" job because the electrical had to be dug up in the driveway where it had pulled loose. It had been spliced already once before (you'd think we would learn).

I cannot sing the praises loudly enough of "machinery" when you have a small ranch. The tractor, and the backhoe, have saved us much back breaking work. We at least had the foresight to buy one of them when we started this adventure. And, thanks Dave! for loaning us the other one.