Let’s go back in time. Waaaaay back to my second month of blogging and my 20th post ever.
On a foggy spring morning, I snapped a photo of this old stump covered in moss and mushrooms.
While I certainly appreciated the natural beauty of the stump, I didn’t appreciate its location in the middle of the “yard” (can’t really call it a lawn back then) between the driveshed and the garden.
My strategy was to make the stump into our firepit.
That was in spring of 2013.
Now, in the fall of 2017, I can finally stay the stump is officially gone. On the weekend, I shoveled up two years worth of ash (I’ve done this cleanout once before) and leveled the ground.
Surprisingly, remnants of the stump were still there. It was very squishy and rotten, so I easily hacked it down with my shovel (here’s how I keep my shovels sharp). Then I raked everything level.
After Matt hit another stump with the mower over the weekend, we have a new candidate for the next firepit. We also happen to have no shortage of brush and deadfall, so stump removal 2.0 is now underway.
Tree maintenance is ongoing at the farm.
Do you have a firepit at your house? Have you ever burnt a stump? Any techniques or advice for removing stumps?
Home on 129 Acres 
A backhoe would be very usefull for my buckthorn. Otherwise it’s just cut low to the ground, apply glysophate and wait for the stump to rot away.
Yeah. I wish every so often for a backhoe. How long does glysophate take?
About half the time it’ll kill the buckthorn then the stump remains fir YEARS until you can pull it out easy. The other half of the time you need to reapply. … it has deep deep roots….
I didn’t know about buckthorn until your comment. I looked it up and I’m pretty sure we have it at the farm. I’d always called it dogwood… usually as I tried to rip it out or prune it back. Now I’ll be more vigilant.
I drill some holes in the stump, pour salt down the holes, then paint the top of the stump over with whatever paint I have lying around then cover it with leaves, mulch, compost, whatever have around. And reapply mulch/compost as I notice it might need it. A couple years later it’s usually gone.
Wonder if that works for buckthorn. ..
Not sure. Do they grow in places with brackish or salt water? If not, it would probably work.
Salt? I’ve never heard of that. Thanks for sharing your tip. It seems like no matter the technique, they all take time.
Yup salt. I read about it a while back and tried it, seems to work. The salt supposedly kills the roots faster
We cut down a cedar hedge at our old house, then we dug holes around the roots a bit. Our friend came with his truck and we wrapped a chain around the roots and he pulled them out, one tree at a time. It was pretty exciting! The yard was completely torn up afterwards, but we were redoing it anyway so it was much easier with the hedge roots gone.
Your farm in general looks so much more “kempt” than before! I’ve been noticing that a lot lately. You guys are rocking being farm owners! SO much work!
I’ve heard of the chain technique although I’ve never tried it before. We could give it a try with Wiley, probably, but I’m not sure he’d get the traction he needs.
Thanks so much for saying things are looking better. That means a lot. I don’t always notice it because I see it every day.