South pasture stump removed

Today I finally finished the removal of the tree stump in the south pasture.  The removal has been a priority as I want to put the cattle in this pasture.

This is a stump where the cattle broke off the above ground part of the stump last Fall.

I dug around the stump on May 15.

Last week I tried to chainsaw the stump to remove it.  As you can see, not much was removed using a chainsaw.

Time for a bonfire to get rid of the stump.

Here is what remained the next day.  This is one solid stump.  I took an axe to the stump in case the fire weakened the stump and made it brittle.  Nope.  You can see what remained under the charred surface.  The axe would sink into the stump and I would have to pull the axe back out. 

Time for another fire since the stump was still warm.  More axe work.  More to do.  I redid several more fires during the day to get the stump burning.

In the evening, since the stump was still solidly there, I had another larger bonfire.  Maybe this will get rid of the stump.

Well, much of the stump is gone, but more needs to go.  The axe wouldn't chop this remaining section.  You'd think it wouldn't be solid now.  But it was.   Time for another small fire.  The green stuff was weeds I tossed in there.

The next day, the stump is mostly gone.  There is some stump under the ashes, and the ashes were hot as the stump was still smoldering.  I had to wait a few more days for the ashes to start to cool down.

Today the ashes were still a little warm, but no smoldering was going on.  It's been long and hard to get rid of this stump.  It is time to let the cattle into the pasture.  So time to put the dirt back in the hole.   As the cattle hadn't been in this pasture yet, and haven't molested and flattened and hardened the dirt, it was easier to get the dirt back into the hole.    The small pile of wood were the parts of the stump I was able to chainsaw off the stump.  Those pieces are solid so I didn't toss them on the bonfire.

To stop the cattle from rubbing in the loose dirt and creating a 'pothole', I place some boards on that I plan to use in my wood stove this Winter.  I had a pile of branches in this pasture which I used part of to have my bonfire.  The larger pieces I kept, and burnt the small pieces. 

Here is the pile of branches I got stuff from to have the bonfires.

Here is what was left after my bonfires.  I moved the pile of cut branches on the right over to be on top of the loose dirt where the stump formerly was located.   I will use the remaining stuff on a later bonfire to get rid of a few more stumps.  Then this pile of branches will be gone, and this will be one less thing I have to go around when I harrow my pastures in the Spring.

Time to let the cattle into this pasture to eat the grass down.