Ken, you can download a free PowerPoint viewer at the Microsoft Download Center. I'm sure there are other freeware programs out there that will do the same thing. Cool pic of the cedar stump/roots. It's also interesting that fairly large roots from another tree can be seen in the excavation but the tree is not shown in the pictures and doesn't appear to be overhanging the site at all. That seems to show how roots really can extend out more than twice as far as the canopy. Here is a link that might be useful: PowerPoint Viewer at the Microsoft Download Center

The ropey grass is Bermuda or Devil's Grass. The problem with it is that it does indeed grow deeply underground, then will come up, spread out and so on until it has taken over everything. People will warn you not to break it up as you will just multiply the plant. The only thing that you can do is apply RoundUp to what is above ground and if you're really energetic, dig down the the ropey stuff, apply RoundUp and personally I'd leave those places opened and exposed. Spraying RoundUp on the grass itself often does not travel far enough to kill off the ropes that continue growing under the soil. Don't even bother attempting to pull it up, you will end up with very sore hands and joints. Many people just end up fighting this stuff all the time. If that area isn't really being used to grow anything, I'd be tempted to put down Vegetation Killer. Nothing will grow there for a full year but that may not matter to you. Bermuda is a warm season grass that is grown as lawn in the Palm Springs area of CA because it can take the heat but come fall it dries out so the residents scalp the Bermuda, and reseed with annual rye and come March, the Bermuda starts coming back in. Putting down black plastic, cardboard, landscapers cloth, or newspapers will NOT deter it, it will just grow sideways to find a source of sun. It can be a real bugger. Perhaps someone else has come up with a great idea for killing the stuff off, although they'd be a billionaire if they did find a cure. It's just a constant garden headache you must keep an eye on. It loves water by the way so if you can eliminate as much moisture as possible perhaps you could keep it from expanding.

Oh man, I feel your pain! Bishop weed is notoriously tough to get rid of. I tried once, by removing the top 6" of soil, but it grew back anyway. I was glad to move away from it (incidentally, the BW didn't chase me away. LOL!) If faced with that plant again, I would remove the desirable plants and smother the whole area for a year, or 18 months if starting in the fall. Then uncover a small test area and make sure it's safe that following summer before assuming it's dead. Another approach could be to smother a new garden spot now, to move desirable plants to in the spring. Then smother the BW spot for as long as you need. I don't know how much space you have available, or what might sound better to you. I wouldn't use plastic though, just corrugated cardboard under at least 6" of organic matter. Might as well improve the soil while smothering, not kill all of the microbes. I would rinse the roots of the desirable keepers as each one comes out of the old bed. The smallest pieces of root from BW can stay alive, keep growing into a whole new invasion. That should also prevent the moving of tiny purslane (or any other kinds of) seeds into the new area, if that's an option for you. Totally agree, seeds don't go well in mulch, if they go at all. You might want to remove most of the mulch (if it hasn't yet decomposed) from a newly smothered area in which you want to have sprouting seeds. If it's been there through a winter, the cardboard should be gone. But, when removing mulch used for smother, be ready for other seeds that were in the soil to then be able to sprout. The first year of any new spot is the toughest, as the "bank" of existing seeds exhausts itself. If you can get through the first year of pulling stuff before it drops new seeds, sprouts of those plants should be dramatically less the following years. A hard border around beds can help keep grass out, and mowing with the chute aiming away from beds. Timbers, bricks, that kind of thing.

I found out it was willow acacia. Neighbor cut one down that was by our fence. I guess after that happens the root system trues to survive and sends out it's root system. Ot mainly ended up it my yard...especially the lawn. I finally just got rid of them....had to pull them up by roots every time one sprouted up by using a pick are to get under the main root and pull as much of it out. Worked best with a wet lawn. Some of the roots were a good 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick...and some up to 5 to 6 feet long if I worked it good.. Needless to say it did a number on my lawn pulling them up. But I think I got it under control now.