Stumping along

Well, to update on past two weeks activities with the Plum tree stump, I have it dug out about 3-4 feet now and have all the roots cut down to that level. The picture was taken on Tuesday, the day after I got it dug down to it's current depth and all the roots sawed or chopped out. The three biggest roots are sitting in front of the hole in the picture.

I took off Monday - Wednesday of that week to support Aimee figuring out how to get around now that she has started college again. Good thing too, cuz I ended up driving her to school once and picking her up twice.

I actually used a hand pruning saw to get the big root out and an axe to get the other two out. The second one with the axe was much easier since I sharpened the axe in between. I bought a yard tool sharpener that is basically a handle with two sharpening blades in the center of it, one for single edge tools, like pruners, and one for double edge tools, like an axe. With one hand on either side of the handle, you pull the tool's sharpening blade along the edge you want to sharpen and it basically scrapes the metal away on either side of the edge. It took many passes on the axe, since it was quite dull, but now I could probably shave with it since it has a very honed edge. It seems like the angle of the edge is a little steep so we will see how it holds up over time.

Here are some other progression pictures, you can click on them to see the bigger picture.

As you can see from the first two pictures here, the hole got deeper quickly. You can also see the big root I had to saw out in the bottom of the last picture. I will probably have to dig out more of that root when I regrade the ground in that corner for the shed that is going in there.

Now all I need to do is find a chain saw to cut the thing out of there and bury the rest of it. Should probably put some root rot stuff in what is left of the stump or will eventually get suckers growing up out of it.