Backyard Bushes

Back yard project #2: ripping out these incredibly overgrown bushes (the 2 shorts ones on the left). These were another huge area infested by wasps we wanted to eliminate from our yard.

I solicited some help from IK, grabbed a couple of trimmers and we went at it! IK took a little before & after shot of the first bush as I began on the second one. Looking at this in perspective with these giant bushes as tall as me, it was definitely time for them to go!

Dude! Check out the muscle definition showing in my arms! That rocks!

Our plan was to chop them down to tiny stumps, about half the size shown here, and then SD would dig up what was left of the stumps.

SD began digging away at the first stump as we continued chopping down the second bush. Unfortunately, as luck would have it this was the moment when the batteries in my camera died...just as I was turning it on to take a video clip and otherwise would have caught this whole thing on tape.

Well, digging out the stump proved to be a big challenge as it didn't want to budge. So SD decided it would be a great idea to burn it out of the ground. So he grabbed a bag of charcoal and poured it around the base of the stump and set it on fire.

But with a very slight breeze the stump wasn't burning very fast at all. That's when SD decided to help the blaze by adding some lighter fluid. So he grabbed a bottle of lighter fluid and poured that on top, which really created a big blaze.

Then he had a really bad idea. He decided to grab the 5 gallon gas can to add even more fuel to the already really tall blaze. He poured a bunch of gasoline on top of the fire, and at first everything seemed fine. But then all of a sudden the flames began to travel up the dripping gasoline into the can and onto SD's arm.

SD quickly realized what was happening and in order to avoid being burned, he turned around and threw the flaming gas can across the yard. He wasn't burned at all, so there were no worries about that. But the flaming gas can landed several feet away in the grass very close to a tiny tree near the back patio...and all of a sudden the grass went up in flames!

SD grabbed the end of the hose and yelled for IK to turn on the water as he ran toward the flaming gas can. The can had landed on its side, so gasoline continued to steadily drip out...so the fire just kept going with a constant fuel supply. We thought it might keep going until the can was empty, but SD managed to kick away the can and the fire went out on the can...

But the grass was still on fire! It was really hilarious because the grass was acting like those trick birthday candles that won't blow out...they kept pouring water all over the area with the hose, but then they'd move the hose away from the grass and all of a sudden a million little flames would pop up just like candles!

It took a while, but finally after drenching the grass with 2 hoses and running the sprinklers to fully drench the ground, the fire finally went out. And SD felt really smart that day.

The next morning, all that was left was a funny reminder of what happened in the discolored grass areas in our yard. On the far left of the photo you can see the area where we removed the 2 huge bushes, and from there you can see the trail of where the gas can was thrown, landing just beneath this little tree on the right.

The evidence in the grass is all gone now, but the funny memories remain. Don't try this at home!