I’ve begun a new activity to keep me busy here on the property. I’m calling it “stump busting”. It’s where you remove old tree stumps in their entirety including as much of the roots as possible. It’s mostly done by hand using a shovel, mattock, block splitter, crow bars, wedges, and sometime a chainsaw.
Step one is to dig around the old stump at least a metre out and 60 cm down, so you move a lot of dirt. This way you can get an idea where the main sideways roots are and get the dirt out from under them as much as possible.
Step 2 is to make sure the bottom part of the stump is free of dirt, usually by removing the bark, then with the big chainsaw you cut through as much as you can. Use the block splitter to remove that part, keep cutting and splitting till you have a flat cut just above where the roots branch off. Some of these pieces that aren’t rotted can be used as firewood later, or as wedges and braces in the next steps.
Step 3 is to start with the block splitter and metal wedges and basically start pounding the crap out of the thing, trying to split off the edges and the roots. If you can create a split with the metal wedge then you can drive another piece of wood into the crack and try and split a piece off. This is a photo of my block splitter and metal wedges. The block splitter is a Fiscars shock absorbing one, and the wedges work well to open a big gap.
Step one is to dig around the old stump at least a metre out and 60 cm down, so you move a lot of dirt. This way you can get an idea where the main sideways roots are and get the dirt out from under them as much as possible.
Step 2 is to make sure the bottom part of the stump is free of dirt, usually by removing the bark, then with the big chainsaw you cut through as much as you can. Use the block splitter to remove that part, keep cutting and splitting till you have a flat cut just above where the roots branch off. Some of these pieces that aren’t rotted can be used as firewood later, or as wedges and braces in the next steps.
Step 3 is to start with the block splitter and metal wedges and basically start pounding the crap out of the thing, trying to split off the edges and the roots. If you can create a split with the metal wedge then you can drive another piece of wood into the crack and try and split a piece off. This is a photo of my block splitter and metal wedges. The block splitter is a Fiscars shock absorbing one, and the wedges work well to open a big gap.
If you can get a split happening along a root you can get that to break off using the mattock, keep doing that and eventually destroy it. You can also use the crow bars to open up gaps and put in pieces of wood to drive it further apart. Its basically brute force, and this one took me 2 days to do. It was 3 stumps in all, two older ones that had a bit of rot, and the remains of the dead tree I cut down earlier. I got tired and left a piece of the tap root on that one, it’s about 2′ down so I will just bury it.
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All stacked up, ready to burn. I’m planning for the morning of the 26th which will give it a week to dry out a bit, and its supposed to rain on the 27th anyway. I’ve moved it another 20 metres out from the trees, the original brush pile was a bit too close for comfort. You can see the grass is now growing pretty well there, and I will add some more dirt to this spot before I re-seed it.
I have another one to do up near the driveway which should only take a day, and two more up behind the shed. There are also a couple of small ones up near the fence that I always have to dodge with the mower that I will get to eventually.
So why don’t you have a go at Stump Busting? It’s the thinking person’s activity, great exercise, and excellent therapy.
Cheers.