I plan to have dh take the chain saw to it as I know how hard it was to cut through some smaller ones last year with the hand saw. esh that is particularly helpful about the cambium layer. Once I apply the herbicide to the stump how long should I leave it before I try to dig out the roots or should I try and dig out all the roots and then only apply the herbicide to what eventually sprouts? Which do you think would be more effective? Maybe I can sneak a cut into the one behind the fence and apply some herbicide? I don't think they would really notice/care, but going over there with my chain saw and cutting it down outright might get their attention. It is also only about 3-4 years old. These all started sprouting the same year in this one strip where the woods were cleared to install the sewer line, then they left them to fill in with Mimosa, wild raspberries, privet and Jap Honeysuckle. Quite a lovely mess as you can imagine, especially since they never really leveled the fill dirt. Also esh, you probably know this, or does anyone know what might be growing in this same area that gets small orange flowers in summer? They are somewhat tubular flowers and the leaves are fairly oval, in fact when they first came up I thought the whole area was filling in with young honeysuckle seedlings but they are not a vine, and may actually be some sort of reseeding annual, although I don't know that for sure. I haven't figured out what they are. The area is fairly wet and sunny and becomes obstructed by thorny raspberry bushes so I haven't really examined them that closely too often. They seem pretty though.

The only difference I can see with older wood flooring is that a lot of it seems to be clear or high grade and thus it was likely cut from the outer portion of a tree as opposed to the center. Wood from the center of a tree is called juvenile wood and is formed during the first 5-25 years of growth. It tends to have less dimensional stability and lower density (contrary to Lowe's "center cut is better" lumber ads). So it quite possible with some of today's flooring (especially strip) that you are seeing softer juvenile wood from the center of the tree. That said, many hardwood sawmills do not cut the center of a tree for any grade lumber and instead utilize it for pallet cants or railroad ties. Softwood sawmills cut studs right down to the pith, much to the dismay of today's framing carpenter. Commercial sawmills sell the higher grades of lumber (FAS, #1 Common) to cabinet plants and distribution yards while the lower grades (#2, #3) go to the large commercial flooring plants. Through optimization, the flooring plants can make select or #1 Common grades of 2" wide flooring from low grade lumber. What I posted earlier about density is true if one is comparing apples to apples. A tight growth-ring piece of oak lumber from the non-juvenile portion of a 150 year old tree has LOWER density than a second growth piece of similar lumber from a 70 year old oak tree. The explanation is simple. Slower growth results in a higher proportion of lower density earlywood cells (the annual rings you see). With faster growth, you get more thick walled latewood cells and the same amount of earlywood cells which remains constant. For anyone interested in learning about wood and wood properties, there are plenty of good resources available. My source is "Forest Products and Wood Science" by John Haygreen and Jim Bowyer.

Good for you! I agree that you should show us the "before" and "after" pics! Also, would you mind getting my email address of my member page and contacting me offline? Based on some posts you wrote several years back, I have a feeling that the same person who did your soapstone counters did mine. If so, I'd love to compare notes!

Find someone with no kids or grown kids. This guy is one of the rare ones that is truly putting his kid's needs in front of his...I like to think I have done the same thing. Lucky for me, my GF of 4+ years has a son and has the same opinion on things. Sure, our time together is less that we would like, but we make do. To answer your question, it's not wrong to want to be his top priority....but you have no right to demand it from him. Trying to get him to spend less time with his little girl would be an awful thing to do. I applaud this guy for being the way he is. Sylvia - we finally agree on something...amazing!