Brother Bonding Time

About 4 weeks ago, I shared with you the process of taking down the big ugly bushes that lined the front of our house...


Joey hacked them with a chainsaw to get them down to the stumps, but didn't have much luck after that of removing the large stumps and roots systems from the ground. And so they've sat for 4 weeks untouched...


...that is until Friday night last week. Joey's brother, Jared, was spending the night and they were playing around outside in the later part of the evening when all of the sudden I started hearing loud noises coming from the front of the house. So, I wandered outdoors and found a few surprises.

1. Joey was borrowing his parent's suburban for hauling a trailer full bushes (the ones we pulled out of the front yard) to the dump Saturday morning, and I found said suburban parked 1/2 way into the front yard and 1/2 way on the street. I pictured a car driving by at any moment and plowing into the back of it.
   
   
   
2. There were silver chains attached to the suburban and the stumps. My first thought: where/when did Joey get these chains???
   
   
   
3. Jared was the one at the driver's wheel (he has never driven before - no permit, no driver's license).
   
   
   
4. There were already 2 or 3 stump/root clumps laying on the front lawn...
   
   
   

All of this intrigued me. Joey explained that he was digging big holes around the stumps, cutting the roots with a chainsaw as best possible, and then having Jared yank them out of the ground using the chains.


As concerned as I was regarding the lack of safety measures being taken, I allowed them to proceed. Sure enough, within an hour, all the stumps were out of the ground...


...and Jared had a chainsaw in his hand. He was cutting a white pipe that sticks out of the front of our house (for sump pump drainage). I asked Jared if he had ever used a chainsaw before, and he said "no". Hmmm...


Once the work was done and the yard cleaned up, Joey "rewarded" Jared for his help by letting him drive the suburban from the front yard around the corner of the street and to the side of the house where our driveway sits. There's nothing like one brother teaching another brother how to break the law.

I thank the Lord we still have garage doors in one piece. And at least we were able to check one more item off of our yard to-do-list!


P.S. To my mother-in-law, I had nothing to do with this. Blame your eldest son.