WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO PAPA? - GRINDING STUMPS ON THE LAND

Sometimes in life, you have to do a lot of work to get the job done.

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This is one of those time. Since we want to build our house near the center of our property and use the existing woods as a windbreak, our driveway will run through part of the forest. For a while now I have been clearing the path with my STEEM-powered chainsaw and taking down the trees that are in the way. Thankfully, a lot of firewood is the byproduct of all this hard work.

Last Sunday, @vcelier and I took a ride with one of my neighbors to pick up this large drum stump grinder. Removing the stumps that remain after my chainsaw work is a big job, and a big piece of equipment like this will certainly help. Thankfully, I have friends who have friends, since renting a piece of equipment like this would cost a bit. When someone allows you to borrow it for free, it is a huge blessing!

My neighbors also have a big piece of necessary equipment. Without the tractor I would not be able to use the stump grinder. Now, we just have to get them hooked up together, which can be a task in itself.

HOOK IT UP!

For the most part, the hook up is not that terrible. However, every little piece needs to fit together and there are a lot of moving parts to deal with and connections must be made.

A few of the hook ups went together nicely, but more work still needed to be done. One of the main supports needed to be connected, but we did not have the correct end on the proper arm.

This is the end that we needed, but this arm would not work. The idea was to remove the end and mount it on another arm.

Once we got the end removed, we lined it up with a different arm. If we welded them together, it should work.

My neighbor, who is not a welder, got on the job. After a few minutes, we figured that we had done what we could.

The weld looked good enough and the piece mounted fine.

The arm also fit into place nicely, so it looked like we were successful in our efforts.

After a few more adjustment and locking a few more pieces into place, we were ready for action. Now to test the stump grinder with the tractor.

HERE GOES NOTHING!

Yes! So far, so good! The giant, heavy drum was spinning and we could raise and lower the grinder. Now that we knew it was working, it was time to test it out down on the land.

NOW COMES THE REST OF THE WORK

Here we are lining up the grinder with our first victim. Since I can't just have stumps in the middle of our driveway, we will have to remove all of them. To be at this point was very exciting. I also have a shipping container on the way, so I need to get these stumps out soon.

Just look at all those stumps behind the tractor. I've definitely got my work cut out for me, but at least I have this heavy equipment to use. Let's see if it works!

These stumps can take anywhere from a minute to about an hour, depending on their size. Personally, I prefer the quick ones, but the large ones need to come out too. It had been over 20 years since I had been on a tractor, but I got the hang of it again. It is time to either learn or remember skills like that.

Getting rid of the stumps this way is a lot of work, but it can be a bit of fun too. Watching sawdust and then eventually dirt and rock fly through the air is pretty cool. Plus, I do like driving the tractor and adjusting the stump grinder.

Some of the larger stumps take some thinking and readjusting too, but so far I am doing good. I've got a lot more work to get done and was even grinding out in the rain this morning. I'll give you all an update once I get the shipping container, because it is next on the to do list along with some road base.

As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:

proof-of-stump-grinder

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Until next time…

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