Me V Tree - guess who won

Mood: fine
Weather: Very Fine

Not to keep the parents or friends who know me and probably figure the 'me v tree' title is a lead in to a car accident story, both cars are fine and the war was fought in the back yard and I WON.

Today was the first really sunny nice 65-70 degree day all year and I have a bunch of raspberry bush babies to plant to I went outside to dig a hole for them. Our yard is pretty big but is reminiscent of a large ditch. Both sides of the yard are level with the second-to-top story of the house and the center of the yard is level with two levels down. You could kindly call it amphitheater like but it does cut back the possible places to plant raspberry bushes. Another feature of the yard is the stream running 8 feet from the end of the property line and that makes the low part of the yard at that end on the wet side. Raspberry bushes love water so in my mind the perfect place for these baby bushes were at the bottom of the ravine at the back of the yard about 6 feet from the fence so 1. They aren't in shade from the trees and 2. Once they have tons of raspberries on them one can navigate all the way around. Shovel in hand I go out to the yard and there in the spot I already had my bushes was a stupid little pine tree. The people who live here before had a love for pine trees, they are randomly placed all over but this one was in the exact place my bushes were going. One might rationally think 'big yard, lets put the bushes somewhere else' but there honestly isn't another level yet sunny yet swampy spot in the yard so I started digging around the tree. A side note about digging 12 feet from a stream, the ground is very very very wet and digging in mud is not fun or neat. Anyway I did what the garden by the yard guy does, I cut a circle all around making a nice root ball, then I dug a new home for the tree, then I tried to get it out of the hole. Here is when the fight started, the tree would not move, I dug more, still won't move, my foot gets stuck in a mud hole and the tree won't move. I pull really hard on the tree (I'm bigger then it) and it only rocks to the side. I get mad at the tree and finally find the taproot, it is very deep and apparently thicker and longer then the above ground portion of the tree. So I had no choice but to hack through the root as it would not give in gracefully. I eventually got the pine tree across the yard into it's new hole and I told it if it wants to stay alive it will grow where I put it. I then planted my nice little raspberry bushes. I have a feeling the root may seek revenge by growing up into a new tree in the middle of the raspberries but that might take years. So, I beat the tree but it did take hours plus a lot of muddy clothing and a few scratches.