A massive oak stump in my own backyard took me three full weekends to grind out

I had a big oak taken down last fall and figured I'd handle the stump myself with my little 14-horsepower grinder. The roots had grown around a buried concrete block from an old shed, which I didn't know about. Every few inches, I'd hit solid concrete and have to stop, dig, and break it up with a sledge. What I thought would be a Saturday job turned into three full weekends of hard, slow work. Has anyone else run into hidden obstacles like that, and what's your plan for dealing with them?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix62527d ago

Sounds like that stump was just guarding its treasure, man.

stella_rodriguez27d ago

Yeah, the "guarding its treasure" line made me remember a podcast about old growth stumps. They said the wood gets so dense and resinous over centuries that it basically petrifies, locking in whatever was inside when it fell.

leerobinson16d ago

Totally makes sense. I read about a redwood stump that had a full set of logging tools from the 1800s inside it. The tree basically grew around the axe and saw some guy left behind, swallowing them up for good. It's like these old giants become time capsules, holding onto history long after we're gone.