Page 7 - LIfesOuttakes1

bumper of my pickup and one to the tree. I pulled away until the chain was tight, and then hit the gas. The chain broke and flipped forward, smashing out the back window of my pickup. That ticked me off. No tree was going to get the best of me. I found a longer, stronger tow cable, and hooked it to the tree and to my pickup. I pulled away, until the tow cable was tight, and then hit the gas; my pickup died. I tried again with the same result. I decided I needed a run at it, so I backed up and took off at high speed. There was a loud tearing of metal. I looked back and, instead of a tree out of a hole, my bumper was lying on the ground. This was war now. I grabbed my chain saw and started to cut through the roots. Suddenly my chainsaw bound up and died. Who would have guessed that the phone cable ran underneath one of the trees roots? I’m sure Mom would enjoy the quiet of not having her phone ring all the time, and the phone cable probably needed replacing anyway. I’m sure the waterline that I cut through did. Why, it barely broke the chain on my chainsaw. I did have to shut off the well pump and bucket out the water. Now that my chainsaw was broken, I found a hand saw and started cutting. Soon I had every root I could find cut, but the stump would barely budge. I dug, I cut, and I dug some more, until the sweat was pouring off of me. I couldn’t even take a drink of water; the well was off because the line was broken. Eventually the tree started to move and, with a lot more coaxing and many more blisters, I finally slid it out of the hole. It was just in time, too, because Mom drove into the driveway. She walked over and, just as I expected, she was surprised. My heart swelled with pride as I announced the obvious - I had removed the tree for her. 2