hat did you do for the Fourth?  We spent the vast majority of it digging out the first of the three large stumps from the box-elders we felled last fall.  My sister and her husband were fantastic help with a merciless job.  Using hatchets, axes, trowels, shovels, pry bars, and chainsaws we excavated each root and dismantled the twisted tangle piece by piece.  Why do we do it this arcane and arduous way?  Because we are Meyers.  And because it’s free and it prevents the lawn from sinking in as the stump and its roots rot away.

Dan danced down the dirt as we shoveled it back in.

And with the sod replaced, there’s hardly any sign of the bugger left.