21 July 2011

Stump Removal


We have to remove a number of trees on the land in order to make room for both the buildings and the roads leading up to them.  Near the entrance to the property were two fairly large oak trees (~12" diameter) which had to come out in order for the entry way to be wide enough to provide access for trucks and other equipment.  Cutting down the trees was one thing but in this case we also had to remove the stumps in order to have a smooth even road.  One way to get rid of an unwanted stump, and the way that I have generally employed in town, is to hire a guy with a stump grinder to reduce the stump to a pile of wood chips and soil.  I did not want to use that option here for two reasons.  I did not want to spend the money and the rocky soil we have here on our West Virginia hillside would be very hard on even a large and robust stump grinder.  The other way to get rid of a stump is to dig it out.  We have our Kubota KX91-2 excavator so this is the technique we pursued.  It is still a bit of a job with the rocky soil but in a few hours Nick was able to dig the stumps out.  One disadvantage of this technique is that at the end of the process you have a very large, unsightly ball of dirt, rock, and wood which can weigh as much as 3000 lbs. which you have to do something with.  For now we just pushed them off to the side of the road.  In the future we will figure out a way of disposing of them.


First, the periphery of the stump must be dug out.  This can be quite difficult in rocky soil.



Eventually, the bottom of the stump can be dislodged from the earth.


Once it's free, the stump can be pulled out of the hole.

The excavator is tough enough to push it out of the way.

The stump can join the collection at the road edge.
 The front two were added today, the rearmost has been there two years.



Here are videos of the excavator at work removing a stump.













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