Hand Tools + Hard Labour = Fun On Saltspring

Andre, left, and John in vigorous battle against  the stump of a holly tree that had gotten out of control.

At first it was a modest holly tree. Then it was a higher holly tree twined through with blackberry vines, a good source of juicy fat blackberries every summer. Then it was a 12-foot holly tree with blackberry vines (and not so many blackberries) being engulfed by voracious English ivy.

In short, it was a mess. It was even starting to seem scarily out of control.

After 25 years of watching the holly tree in the back yard of our Saltspring Island property go through those different phases, we fell on it this week with saws, clippers big and small, spades and shovels, a trowel, a rake, a hatchet, a heavy-duty pry-bar, an axe and a mattock.

Not just us – two senior citizens beginning to feel their vulnerabilities – but us and three hardy friends who once kayaked/paddleboarded around Saltspring Island in a day. Andre, Margo and Alison joined the attack on the holly tree  after a several-hour paddleboard/kayak trip that morning.

Andre and John led the assault on the tree itself, eventually uncovering not just a frightened rat, but the fact that the holly had grown right beside a Douglas Fir stump, now decomposing into sawdust and bark. Margo and I clipped the holly, ivy and blackberry vines into manageable chunks. Alison tirelessly dug all around the stump, rooting out the tangled vines that had formed a carpet of weeds over many, many years.

Intrepid friends hacking away at the holly stump and vine roots.

John on stump, with Andre, Alison and Margo backing him up.

The first day’s attack left about three feet of holly-tree stump above an impressive root. The second day, after two hours of slicing, hacking, digging, chopping and prying, Andre and John felt the giant root begin to wiggle. A little more chopping, some furious spadework, some clearing out of rocks, a lot of standing-on, shouldering and pushing at the stump, and finally – it was out. Then cheers and much brandishing of weapons as the victors stood on the root like a beast they had slain.

  It could have been easier. A chainsaw could have sliced the tree down to ground level and we could have left it at that. We could have pretended the vine roots in the ground wouldn’t regrow, and quietly sliced away at them for years to come. But hand tools and hard labour! How much more fun is that!

A job like this takes plenty of tools; everybody used something different.

Andre, left, keeps digging while John supervises.

It took a lot of digging and chopping to get out the "root of all evil," as Andre put it.

Part of the work was just wrestling the stump.

Once the stump started to wiggle, the two labourers had some hope.

 

Victory at last!

Pre-massacre holly tree to right of photo. A pile of brambles, in centre, has already been removed.