I detached the bottom J piece and mucked it out with a screwdriver. It was packed solid with rotting pine needles, but had several fat earthworms in it too. Score. Then I poured some water from the hose in the top of the spout and proceeded to scrape at the jam with fingers. Messy, smelly work. At a certain point in the process I heard a great sucking sound, and a solid, rectangular column of decomposing pine duff extruded from the opening like Silly Putty before a drain pipe's worth of water came gushing out at me. It surprised me such that I leapt straight up and backwards from the surge, a feat somewhat impressive at my age.