Stump 1 in 2018

For a change of pace, and because I am tired of going around so many trees and tree stumps when dragging a harrow in the pastures, I started to dig around one of the stumps in the middle pasture.  This stump appeared a few years ago as it is slowly being squeezed up out of the soil.  I've had enough experience to realize that often a small nub of a stump is only 1% of the entire size.  So I put off doing anything with the stump until now.

I planned on digging down only a little bit, enough to burn the top down a few inches then cover the stump up.  Of course I ended up digging deeper.   After two to three hours total of digging between last night and this afternoon I dug the stump out.  No burning needed.

I found the stump to be mainly a large side root, and the rest the remnants of a prior burning (as I dug up fire burned tops of the rest of the stump just underground.  I found parts still had minor amounts of sap after all these decades as a stump.  I believe the stump to be from a Tamarack (Western Larch) tree.

The blue circle shows the part (in sun bleached white) of the stump that was above the ground.

Then I had to refill the hole.

Since stump one went so quickly I moved on to another stump.   This stump is tall enough for the cattle to use as a scratching post.  So I will keep the main part.  The dug holes show the rest of the stump I removed.  These areas of the stump barely came above ground; anywhere from an inch to three or four inches.  Tall enough to be a nuisance when stepping on them unknowingly, or when dragging a harrow.

I actually dug a little more than shown in the photo.  After I took the photo I found another part of the stump barely above the ground and hidden by the short grass.  This is the narrow undug area to the left of the stump.

This partial removal was minor so I am not counting it.

I then started on yet another stump in this same area. (Can be seen in the upper right of photo #2)  I have more to dig on that stump to remove it.  Tomorrow's work.  Then I will get back to planting my hayfield.