Tree stump burn

A few weeks ago, after I started the irrigating of the hayfield, I also burned an old tree stump.  I thought I was done with burning tree stumps as I planned on keeping the few left so the cattle could rub on them if they wanted.   But last year this stump started to fall apart.  It got to the point it wasn't worth keeping.  I planned on burning it last Fall but the cattle still rubbed against the remains at times.  But this year I decided it was time for the stump to go.

In the Spring I dug around the stump.  I didn't dig as deep as I normally do as I thought how rotted this stump was it would be easy to burn.  Instead of 2 to 3 feet down, I dug 1 1/2 to 2 feet down.  And as you can see the stump has a lot of large side roots.

I let the dug-around stump dry some.  Then we had off-and-on rain in June. I waited for the stump to dry some more.  Now that rain quit the beginning of July it was time for the burn.  I didn't want to wait longer as the grass would dry out and that could be a problem.  The timing was right as the grass didn't burn.   If I had waited till now, that could have been a problem.

Still, to be safe I didn't do a massive burn of the stump and burn it all in one night.  I did small bonfires on parts of the stump and did this over five nights.  And due to me moving irrigations pipes daily, I didn't want to stay up really late that a large burn would require.

And it was five nights of a burn because the stump didn't really want to burn.  This was odd. Spruce tree stumps will burn and then somewhat smolder to finish the stump off.  Sometimes they need a little help to continue to smolder.   Tamarack stumps are hard to get burning, but when they do get to burning they will continue non-stop.  No extra help is needed.   This stump was hard to get started.  And it also didn't want to smolder either.   I have no idea what kind of tree this stump was as it had died and became a stump before I started living here full time over two decades ago.  The side roots were very, very hard and difficult to chop using an axe.  And difficult to burn.   Not a tamarack tree as I have found old sap in a long dead tamarack stump's roots.   No sap in these roots.

Here is part of a side root after I ended the burn.  I used an axe to chop this off.  They are extremely hard and heavy.

But the stump is now gone.

 

Night 1.

Night 3.

It looks like a starship and aliens could be watching me and the burn.

Near the end of this burn I broke and knocked part of the main stump apart.  That is what is burning.

Night 4.

Night 5.  The last of a side root.