Built our house a little more than 30 years ago, planted a nice japanese maple tree maybe a year or two later. It was in a raised planter next to the house. The tree looked pretty bad starting last spring, died during the fall/winter.
Really didn't want to lose the tree but we did, so the work began last week when I cut off the branches, left about 5-6' of trunk above the dirt line figuring I could use that to push/pull on when I got to that point.
Took down some of the concrete blocks that make the low raised bed, then I dug around the trunk so I could get to the roots. Being that it has been 90+(F) here, and hella humid, the digging was done in the evenings, and I spread it out over 2 evenings. Really it didn't take long but the heat/humidity was simply miserable. If it was 60 degrees it would have been less than a 90 minute task to move the dirt. I basically dug as deep as I could, but was essentially stopped by the roots.
Got out the sawzall with a long wood blade. Cut all the way around the perimeter of the tree. The long blade on the sawmill let me cut down under the surface of the dirt so I was able to cut through a lot of roots that I could not even see. You'd feel the blade engage, and see sawdust.
After cutting around the perimeter I leaned into the trunk to try to rock it. Found out that my 6'tall/195# body was no match for the tree truck. It literally would not budge. Off to get the tractor.
HST set in low, 4wd, the 7000# Bobcat's bucked reached over the trunk and I pulled the tree trunk toward the tractor to expose more roots on the house side. Back to the sawzall and cut more roots. Then I raised the bucket and pushed the truck toward the house to expose are roots. Back to the sawzall . . . repositioned the tractor to push the trunk sideways . . . back to the sawzall . . . and one final repositioning to push to the other side and then back to the sawzall.
After all that, there were still a couple of remaining roots so I pulled the trunk over as far as I could, heard a couple of them snap, and finished off the rest with the sawzall before rolling it out of the planter and into the bucket.
I will say that using the sawzall to cut away the roots made the job MUCH easier. I had never tried that before, but damn it works.
Rebuilding the block wall was already on the summer "to do" list. But I didn't want to remove more than necessary because this is on a slope and I wanted to contain as much of the good as possible while still removing the stump.
Both of my shoulders, elbows, wrists are sore. Those are my worst arthritis joints. Didn't hurt when I work up, but hurts like crazy now.
Really didn't want to lose the tree but we did, so the work began last week when I cut off the branches, left about 5-6' of trunk above the dirt line figuring I could use that to push/pull on when I got to that point.
Took down some of the concrete blocks that make the low raised bed, then I dug around the trunk so I could get to the roots. Being that it has been 90+(F) here, and hella humid, the digging was done in the evenings, and I spread it out over 2 evenings. Really it didn't take long but the heat/humidity was simply miserable. If it was 60 degrees it would have been less than a 90 minute task to move the dirt. I basically dug as deep as I could, but was essentially stopped by the roots.
Got out the sawzall with a long wood blade. Cut all the way around the perimeter of the tree. The long blade on the sawmill let me cut down under the surface of the dirt so I was able to cut through a lot of roots that I could not even see. You'd feel the blade engage, and see sawdust.
After cutting around the perimeter I leaned into the trunk to try to rock it. Found out that my 6'tall/195# body was no match for the tree truck. It literally would not budge. Off to get the tractor.
HST set in low, 4wd, the 7000# Bobcat's bucked reached over the trunk and I pulled the tree trunk toward the tractor to expose more roots on the house side. Back to the sawzall and cut more roots. Then I raised the bucket and pushed the truck toward the house to expose are roots. Back to the sawzall . . . repositioned the tractor to push the trunk sideways . . . back to the sawzall . . . and one final repositioning to push to the other side and then back to the sawzall.
After all that, there were still a couple of remaining roots so I pulled the trunk over as far as I could, heard a couple of them snap, and finished off the rest with the sawzall before rolling it out of the planter and into the bucket.
I will say that using the sawzall to cut away the roots made the job MUCH easier. I had never tried that before, but damn it works.
Rebuilding the block wall was already on the summer "to do" list. But I didn't want to remove more than necessary because this is on a slope and I wanted to contain as much of the good as possible while still removing the stump.
Both of my shoulders, elbows, wrists are sore. Those are my worst arthritis joints. Didn't hurt when I work up, but hurts like crazy now.
