Don Foreman wrote:

I used to watch a couple of TV programs every evening, with Mary when
she was at home but also even when she was in hospital or the rehab
place. But I can't get interested in that now. I'm watching hardly
any TV lately (except when on the treadmill during inclement weather)
and I can't get interested in reading anything but the newspaper yet.

But I am starting to get back to the shop once in a while.

http://members.goldengate.net/dforem..._ladder_clamp/

Next project: make a steel plate, drill some holes in it and weld it
to a receiver tube insert. A Harbor Freight winch will bolt to the
plate. Kevin has a whole bunch of pesky shrubs he wants to pull and
thought this might be an easy way to do it.

For pulling smaller bushes and the like I use a chain to noose the
offending plant, attached to the loader bucket on my compact tractor.
Back when I had a much larger backhoe I did the same with fairly large
trees up to ~4" dia. Northern Tool lists some grabbers and chains made
specifically for that purpose, but I used normal 5/16" system 7 chain
with no issues. I would be a bit concerned with using a winch due to
cable stretch issues. How about something modeled after an engine hoist
to rip the shrubs out?