Removing Stumps
The house we rent used to have a lot of trees out in the backyard.
When we viewed the place they were there, it look liked some sort of backyard jungle. When we moved in all the trees that were there were gone.
According to one of the neighbours miscommunication led to the deforestation of the back yard. The wife told the husband to remove a couple, he told the arborists to remove everything.
Really opens up the place I guess. Making the whole backyard visible to our neighbours. One who is called Noelene and can be seen staring out her kitchen window at any given time of the day or night,.
All this progress left tree stumps.
They come in a variety of sizes and locations. They aren't usually a problem until they are. They are in a silly spot when trying to mow the lawns, some of them have had new growth with small branches and leaves growing off of them.
I've dealt to some of the smaller ones in the past. I don't mind doing it and sometimes you feel better being outside destroying and removing parts of nature.
A while back I purchased a Mattock. I'm not sure where it fits in the family tree of outdoor tools but I get the feeling it's sorta like that uncle you only see once in a while. It's underrated but it gets the job done.
Digging, cutting of roots, prying the stump. It's in there doing the work.
These bigger stumps, or ones that don't seem to want to budge have just been sitting there mocking me every time I go outside.
Until today that is.
We saved up and got a Ryobi reciprocating saw. I've used this type of tool in a job many years ago, so I know it's capable and versatile, you just need to make sure you have the right blades. I got some large pruning blades for this new tool.
It's worked great. Cutting through roots like a hot knife through butter, decoupling the stump from the ground one root at at time.
I managed to get 3 stumps out of the ground today. Sure my back is probably going to hurt tomorrow, I sweated way too much and I got covered in dirt. But man did it feel good.
All that's left is the largest of them all. This will be a multi month project it feels.
The part I am missing to achieve this stumps demise is a rather large wrecking / pry bay which will help me leverage it out better and find where roots are to cut. I'll give an update if and when I manage to achieve this lofty goal.
Oh and if you read any of this and wanted to talk about just using a stump grinder, well our yard is almost impossible to get to with any machinery bigger than a lawnmower and well, this is more fun.