Holes

After days of learning about different types of trees, looking at my yard, thinking about different landscape ideas, and finally several hours of ass-bustin' labor, I have four new big trees (three oak and one elm) in my yard and two new small possumhaw holly trees.

When I bought the trees, I was warned a couple times that I might hit rock and need a jack hammer to get deep enough. So I thought to myself, "I can dig these holes myself, get some exercise, and get some sort of zen thing going with my yard". Of course the first hole, I dug about one foot through really tough central Texas clay and rocks and hit a solid sheet of rock. I thought "damn", I'm going to have to pay these guys at $60 a hole to jack hammer all six holes. I started digging the next hole and I was surprised that I could get deep enough to plant a tree. After those two holes I was wiped out for the day and almost ready to give up. The next day I actually felt rested and re-motivated so I went back to work. I think my digging technique improved because the next hole went a little easier.

When the trees were finally delivered, I was ready to pay the guy from the nursery to help me, but he just dropped the trees and left. It was the end of the day, and he looked like he was worn out. He probably just wanted to get out of there.

So I was stuck with six trees, two good holes, and one hole full of rock. The next great idea I had was to just buy a sledge hammer instead of renting a jack hammer. Bonnie looked pretty sceptical when I asked her to get me a sledge hammer at Home Depot. "What kind?", she asked. "I don't know. A big one", I said.

It actually worked out ok. The rock broke up pretty easily with the sledgehammer, and the rest of the holes didn't have a lot of rock. So I finally managed to plant everything. I'm still a long way from my dream of having no lawn, but at least I made a little progress.