Another stubborn tree stump

[Marc]

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With temps from mid 90's to just over 100, I worked only for two, three hours in the early AM to get this 30 - 36" stump out. The pit reached 9' diameter and averaged about 28" deep. Only power tool was a reciprocating saw. The tree that once stood here was chopped up for firewood several years ago (took a few months to do that) and used for zen campfires on the stump every now and then. When the earth started showing in the middle of the stump, I decided to take the rest out myself. Most of it came out in 6, 8 large pieces, a few seemed as heavy as I. About 15, 20 hours to get it all out.

It's a wonderful feeling to prevail and win.

Marc

[kurt]

You win maniac of the month award.

[John Dirks Jr]

That's the kinda stuff I do when I'm in a fight with the Mrs. An engulfing task that requires determination and fortitude. It doesn't have to make sense, it just needs to involve hard work and time.

On the calendar for the next fight is a three step wax job for my beat up work van.

When God gives you lemons.......

[Jim Katen]

Wouldn't it be cool to use trained termites for this kind of thing? Rod the soil around the stump to contain them, introduce the termites into the soil near the roots, and cover the thing with a tarp to create uniform conditions. Then sit back and let them do their thing.

[kurt]

Make it really challenging. I'd rather Marc learned how to gnaw the stump to nothingness using his incisors.

[Marc]

Wouldn't it be cool to use trained termites for this kind of thing? Rod the soil around the stump to contain them, introduce the termites into the soil near the roots, and cover the thing with a tarp to create uniform conditions. Then sit back and let them do their thing.

Sub termites here won't touch it until it's rotted. Most of this stump was hard as nails. Great idea though. Let them have at it instead of me. They're here on my property, just haven't bothered my house, just my shop a little. I watch them.

I'll save my incisors. I'll need them for quite a while longer, I hope.

I'm not the sort to yell or animate at football games or anywhere but when I got that last piece out, my fist went up in the air, half extended and without thinking.

Marc

[Nolan Kienitz]

Amazing fortitude!!

I would have sat myself down in the chair you provided and started sipping on a Shiner Bock and watch you sweat.

First I would move the chair to be in the shade of a tree!! [:-slaphap

[gtblum]

I had a maple stump where my fire pit is.

For years, we had fires over it and never made a dent until one weekend, after a Friday night fire was rekindled on Saturday, and burned through the next wednesday, on its own.

It left a hole in the ground just like that one. The only tool I needed, was a full beer can.

[kurt]

There was a time when one could go to the local lumberyard and buy a case of explosives. So much for our 2nd Amendment rights.......

I wish America would stop it's descent into 3rd world insignificance and recognize our Constitutional right to dynamite sold at the 7-11 and blowing stuff up whenever we want.

[Mark P]

My Grandfather was a school principle prior to WWII. He wanted to turn some land next to the school into a sports field, but it was covered with tree stumps. Whenever a student was sent to his office for misbehaving he gave them the choice of the paddle or digging up a stump after school. He got the land cleared of stumps and to this day it is still a sports field.

[Jim Katen]

. . . Sub termites here won't touch it until it's rotted. Most of this stump was hard as nails. Great idea though. Let them have at it instead of me. They're here on my property, just haven't bothered my house, just my shop a little. I watch them. . .

Those are some lazy-ass termites. Ours are happy to go after fresh wood.

Ok, then. Next time, I suggest covering the stump with EIFS. It'll rot out in a year.

[mlparham]

. . . Sub termites here won't touch it until it's rotted. Most of this stump was hard as nails. Great idea though. Let them have at it instead of me. They're here on my property, just haven't bothered my house, just my shop a little. I watch them. . .

Those are some lazy-ass termites. Ours are happy to go after fresh wood.

Ok, then. Next time, I suggest covering the stump with EIFS. It'll rot out in a year.

That's funny.

You can also throughly wet a stump, spread some fertilizer on it and cover the stump with clear plastic. It will still take awhile but not as long as if you did nothing.

[Jim Baird]

...been there, Marc, a number of times here, but no always that big. There is something strangely rewarding about that kind of work and winning the day with it.

I moved ten tons of #7 stone with a shovel and a wheelbarrow one spring, screeded to inch and a half depth and hand tamped on a five foot by 130 foot walkway. I lost a few pounds then.

[mjr6550]

I'm impressed with the nearly perfect circle.

[John Kogel]

Thanks for sharing, but don't expect a lot of competition from me on stump gnawing.

I've got Carpenter Ants working on mine. They're going at it slow and steady, but 24 hrs a day, generation after generation.

Yeah when I had my big property, i had many a stump fire and got rid of a few when the fire hit pitch pockets, big old Douglas fir. The last fire got away and scorched some trees. That was not cool. Tanks again to the volunteer fire department. I bet the stump is still there. []