Digging out the stump

Having gotten down to bedrock, the primary goal is to dig out the stump, so we start to dig back towards the stump. First we dig back to the concrete slab that the electrical box is on, and then we start to dig around the stump, counter-clockwise.

With daylight savings, it's lighter in the evening, so I've been coming home from work earlier and trying to dig from about 6:00 to 7:30 in the evening. After the weekend, and 3 or 4 evenings, we have dug our around half the stump.





Another weekend of digging and we have most of the dirt from the back side moved out. Once you get about 3 or 4 inches down, you hit the roots. I use the "axe" part of my grubbing hoe to chop at the roots next to the stump and at the edge of the hole that I've dug to get the roots out. This disconnects the stump from the roots out in the yard (which will eventually be dug up or die).



And this evening, having chopped my way around the stump, I could just reach down, and use the longest remaining root to lift the stump up and on its side.




It's really heavy. I can't think of any reason anyone would want a stump, so the next problem will be to break it down into manageable pieces and haul it out. I have a couple of wedges and a sledge hammer that I will try to use for that this next weekend.