Before the accident there started to be at times a pattern where the pocket gophers would try to avoid the traps or fill them with dirt. It could take quite a number of days to finally trap the pocket gopher. So I expected that to happen again. There was a small tree stump out near the pocket gopher trap. The stump was very short so one could drive over it. But one wouldn't want to drive a vehicle tire over the stump itself. I figured that I could dig a little each day around the stump after I checked the pocket gopher trap. I caught the pocket gopher in one day.
The stump? It turns out this "small looking" stump was one of the biggest stumps I dug around. It turns out the stump was from a western larch / tamarack tree. Even though the tree was a stump for at least several decades - or more - it hadn't decayed and was hard and solid. Also with no tap root the stump's roots were six major roots.
I didn't plan on digging too deep around the roots - just deep enough that after burning the stump it would be low enough that it wouldn't squeeze out of the ground until I later passed away. But some of the roots went sideways and intertwined with out of the stump's roots. As I dug around the stump I dug deeper and deeper. Then I got the idea to cut and remove a few of the roots using my chainsaw so I more easily dig around the rest of the stump's roots. My chainsaw's chain already had been worn down, and with the hard roots the chain eventually mostly wore out. But I did remove three of the six roots using the chainsaw, and one more using an axe.
By now yet another day passed and by now I felt I may as well keep digging deep around the remaining roots. The roots get narrow when they go lower in the ground. I decided to use an axe and I chopped and cut and removed the remaining roots. So much for burning the stump to get rid of it.
I hauled off the stump I had cut and removed. It completely filled my pickup's bed!
Normally it would have taken me two, maybe three days, to dig and remove the stump. It took me a week as I didn't have strength to dig much or for a long time each day. Often I would kneel and dig as standing much was still an issue for me. Often I would only dig for a few hours each day. Near the end I worked a long day. The weather forecast was for a pattern change and it was suppose to start raining the next day. I felt if I put in a long day I would be in a position where I wouldn't have to dig in muddy dirt. One of my accident's side effects for a while was that my appetite wasn't working. I wouldn't get a feeling where I felt I had to eat. So I forgot about the time and eating as I worked on the stump. When recovering I often had to take a break and rest numerous times. It was late afternoon when the latest rest turned into a collapse. I suddenly lost all my strength due to the lack of eating. I had to lay on the ground a long time in order to get enough strength to stand and walk back home. Fortunately the cattle were not in this pasture so I didn't have to worry about them walking on me as I lay there.
Therefore, I didn't get all of the stump dug that day. But the weather forecast was wrong. It didn't rain the next day and I was able to complete digging, and even removing, the stump.
That is the only stump I removed this Fall this year. I wasn't going to chance any future problems by working on another stump this year.
I forgot to take a photo before I started digging. But what had been above ground only was the two black top sections of the roots in the back. That is why I didn't think the stump was as big as it turned out to be.
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| Not quite all of the dirt I had dug. |
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| The roots I had cut mainly with a chainsaw. |
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| The remaining roots to remove the day after I had collapsed. |
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| Remaining root removed using an axe. |
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| Some of the roots I had dug and removed. I had more roots elsewhere around the hole. |
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| I used my tractor to push the dirt back into the stump's hole. |
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