Stump the Shark

For anything that doesn't fit the other forums.

Moderator: TMAX

Post Reply
Sharkey
Original Founder
Posts: 1364
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 4:00 am
Contact:

Stump the Shark

Post by Sharkey »

No, this isn't another one of Rudy's puzzler topics...

Over New Year's, my friend Thomas was visiting, staying in the "Guest Bus" and working on firewood (he has some misguided impression that chopping firewood is "good exercise"). Last Wednesday, he decided to build a fire on the old stump by the front of the Crown and burn it up.

Well, that fire burned for six days, I kept it going by feeding it all the scrap wood around the wood shed, fallen limbs from the trees around the yard, old fence posts, and finally, cutting off bits of the stump and feeding to the fire burning itself up.

This Monday evening, the fire just up and went out after burning up almost everything above ground on the formerly 24" diameter trunk. I probed around in the ashes and determined that the fire had burned all the way down to dirt in the center of the stump. A bit of excavation revealed that what was above ground was half or less of the total bulk of the stump, there was still a lot of root mass that needed to be removed so I could make the ground level and allow me to mow unimpeded this summer.

So, for the last couple of days, I've used idiot sticks (shovels, pick-and-mattock, etc) to dig out roots, cut them off using the chain saw and axe, and doing a lot of poking a probing to figure out where the next cut is. I figure I'm about half done with the job, assuming that I don't get any nasty surprises:

Image

It's hard to tell what's what. The axe is sticking out of what was the center of the stump, at about the original level of the top. Most of the burning took place on the side of the stump facing the camera, although I did also burn on two other sides. The big pie of debris is roots and root wads that I cut out a section at a time, sometimes after mostly excavating them with the idiot sticks. When it's all over, I'll have a big crater to fill in with the piles of dirt. When I started this, I had hoped that the fire would dig into the roots and I'd be left with a smoking crater, but this tree didn't burn like some of the conifers in other parts of the yard, the fire really didn't go into the roots. Some of the other stumps I've burned here smouldered for weeks without any attention whatsoever.

Oh well, it will be good to get rid of this blemish in the yard, I get tired mowing around it, it's in the way of my clothesline, Camellia gets her tie-out rope tangled around it, and I'm sure that all those termites living inside it would love to come over to the house for lunch. I'm just glad I don't have a whole field of these to clear.
dburt
Posts: 811
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:53 am
Location: NE Oregon, SW Idaho
Contact:

Post by dburt »

I burned out a large 3-ft fir stump one time by piling on all the chain saw shavings that were left after cutting up the huge tree when it had to come down due to old age and rot. I must have had a 5-ft tall pile of shavings heaped over the stump. I got the shavings to burn, and they worked thier way down to the stump proper. They burned for about a week, and when I could see the stump below ground level, I gathered up more sticks, twigs, shavings etc and piled them on to keep the fire going. After about another week, the fire had burned down and out the roots, so there was a huge hole in the ground, a cavity that mirrored the original shape of the stump and the large roots fanning out in all directions under the ground.
Quite interesting to see! :o

It must have taken a yard or two of soil to fill in the hole. But it seemed to take forever to burn the whole thing out- at least two weeks if not a little longer. But it sure beat using the idiot sticks or the poor man's backhoe!
leftlaner
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Nov 21, 2004 6:34 am
Location: iowa
Contact:

Post by leftlaner »

we used coal to burn out stumps it worked great
TMAX
Officer Hormel
Posts: 134
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2009 5:35 pm
Location: Bellflower, California
Contact:

Post by TMAX »

If you can get hold of a couple of bags of mesquite chips and keep them burning in the stump for a few days, that should do the trick. Mesquite burns very hot.
User avatar
ezrablu
Posts: 961
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2010 2:40 am
Contact:

Post by ezrablu »

wow...I'm glad I ended up buying already cleared land instead of 100% woods like I wanted. There is no way I would have been able to clear enough area by myself before I would be too old to accomplish it :D

Planting trees seems MUCH easier than removing them.

Good post and info, thx.
ezrablu
1991 Bluebird International
360 DT - 6 Speed
TMAX
Officer Hormel
Posts: 134
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2009 5:35 pm
Location: Bellflower, California
Contact:

Post by TMAX »

Oops! Almost forgot about poorman's stump rot. A few cans of Draino plumbing crystals (lye). A bit toxic, but effective.
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 22 guests