Five Great Tips for Digging Stubborn Stumps

today's video is sponsored by ag1 so welcome back to outdoors with some organs we are Outdoors this morning we are headed out in the woods here to the little clearing project uh we had some rain this morning from about 4 A.M to about seven but we're going to see if we can't uh get this fire stoked up again out here I just spotted a uh deer over here to the right checking me out it's actually a fawn I think yeah yeah it's a little fun I won't bother you I hope it's Mom doesn't bother me so I had a pretty good day out here yesterday got a lot done and not a whole lot of time actually yeah almost everything's uh thank you burn up what we're going to do is kind of stir this up a little bit tuck everything back into the center and uh we should be able to get it going [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you foreign [Music] I gathered up some dead stuff there it's pretty dry got a little bit of flame going there I think it'll get going here I just really don't have that much more fuel you know to put on it I'm going to be left with a bunch of stumps but maybe this afternoon if it dries up a little bit I'll bring the skid loader out here with the grapple start Gathering up all these stumps what I didn't burn I'm going to take out that way and right over the edge of the Hill I'll put all those stumps kind of a brush pile on top of it and just like you know piles of stuff that's mixed in with the topsoil and Roots things like that we'll make a big pile right over the hill there then in about 10 years if I need some really good topsoil that will be the place to get it that stuff will all kind of break down and rot and should work out all right all right it's been about uh 10 minutes we've got some action here now oh yeah we'll come back later on uh once it dries up a bit and get back to work earlier I mentioned that today's video was sponsored by ag1 and I want to thank them for sponsoring today's video ag1 is a daily foundational nutrition supplement that supports whole body Health through a science driven formulation of micronutrients phytonutrients and essential symbiotics ag-1 supports the brain the gut and the immune system it's made up of 75 high quality ingredients carefully curated to nourish all the body systems holistically I started to drink ag1 a couple years ago when I was looking for something to help with my nutrition you know I'm not getting any younger I was looking for something specifically to help with immune support because I don't like getting sick and focus and energy because I don't like getting tired either ag1 has me covered on all that plus a whole lot more another great thing about ag-1 it is a effortless daily habit that's very easy to get into one scoop or travel pack of ag1 8 ounces of water every day that that's it ag1 combines nine Health Products working together as one replacing your multivitamin multi-minerals pre and probiotics immunity support and more go to drinkag1.com outdoors with the Morgans to get started on your order ag1 is going to give my community a free one-year supply of AG vitamin D3 plus K2 and 5 ag1 travel packs with your first purchase thanks to ag-1 for sponsoring today's video ah [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] all right I'm back out here at the little clearing job I just took down two little Maples put the tops on the pile I think they'll get going I'm not sure but uh that should light up here in a little bit it is starting to rain right now but I think we're going to take this opportunity to uh talk about digging out stumps I think I've come up with five different tips as far as digging stumps and the first one is by far the most important at least in my opinion and that is don't be an idiot whenever I'm about to do something I think would an idiot do that and if they would I do not do that thing if everyone would follow those words of wisdom right there ninety percent of the problems in the world would just go away now when I say don't be an idiot what I mean is this I've seen videos of people you know like with a little Kubota BX and and even a stump this size right here that's about a seven inch Maple you know they're ramming them with their front bucket or they've got a little grapple on it uh stumps are difficult to get out of the ground and you just have to go slow and steady and be kind of methodical about it and no Ramen or jerkin or anything like that all you're going to do is break stuff so number one don't be an idiot number two get to know your opponent you know try to figure out what you're up against you know like this machine right here 13 000 pound excavator this little stump right here not going to be any trouble at all but you want to kind of walk around the stump see where the roots are you know I can see one coming out from this side here I can see one going on over that direction same with this bigger stump right here now these Maples you know each tree species they kind of act a little bit differently these maples have tons and tons of small Roots this will pull out a huge root ball but same thing get to know the stump I see I got a big one coming out right here one coming out right there one over there you know once you get an idea what you're up against you need to move on to number three number three is come up with a plan and when I say come up with a plan you know there's actually a lot involved with that number one like what's your approach if you're using an excavator like that you know you want to have your blade in the front uh if the blade was in the back and you start pulling on even this little stump right here the back of the machine is going to be coming up in the air you're going to be bouncing around also you don't want to be pulling on them over to the side I mean unless they're real small but this is a good approach right here so like my plan for this stump right here I've got one root big one I can see back here in the back I think another one in here it's not going to be a big deal I'll kind of test the waters a little bit first I'll just kind of pull on it right here see how much it's moving uh if it doesn't come out I'll start working the roots but I'm sitting in the right position and this kind of applies to anything that you're using if you're using a backhoe on a tractor something like that wherever your machine is most powerful and most stable that's how you want to be sitting number four having some Leverage is your friend matter of fact it's pretty easy to push trees over the only reason I don't do that I'm saving the firewood poles out of them and I just don't want to smash things up but you know if you push the tree over you're using all that leverage and the weight on the top of the tree to help get that stump out but if you don't do that at least cut them off a couple feet out of the ground like this that makes all the difference in the world if this was cut off flush it would be much more difficult let's dig this little one out right here and then we'll talk about number five [Music] all right [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] that one was uh easy peasy it was sitting somewhere right in there the other thing I try to do is get some level of compaction back in the stump hole like this is just going to be like a meadow out here we'll probably plant some fruit trees it's not like I'm building a road over top of it if you're going to build a driveway over top of that you're going to dig that out get your topsoil out of there get some good material in there and get some good compaction but that's the other thing I try to do get some decent compaction back in the stump hole otherwise you're going to have a bunch of soft spots everywhere when it rains now this stump right here this is a whole different animal than the one that I just dug out that one was probably seven eight inches in diameter maybe not even that this one right here is probably 15 or 16 inches now even though it is double the size it's going to take way longer then double the time as it did to take that one out which brings me to number five be patient this stump it took 60 or 70 years to get to that point right there don't expect to get it out of the ground in three or four minutes it's going to take some time all right so as I approach this stump here number one I'm not going to do anything stupid number two I'm gonna get to know the tree a little bit it's a Maple they're pretty difficult to get out of the ground I'm going to look for these roots right here there over there I'm going to start off this is my plan of attack from where I'm sitting right there I'll start pulling on this route somewhere over in here if I can't get it without exerting tons of force I'll just move on a little bit once I bust some of these roots up I'll give it a little test pool now I'll probably have to move the machine and get over to this side right here and break any roots that are on this side over here so that's kind of my plan of attack on this one [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] so that stump took me 13 minutes which isn't too bad at all like I said considering it's been growing for 60 or 70 years and out of that 13 minutes probably only took about five or six minutes to get it out of the ground then I spent the rest of the time picking out the roots and getting it back filled and getting some compaction yeah not too shabby well my fire is uh trying to get going but anyway to review what we talked about there as far as digging Stumps number one don't be an idiot number two get to know your opponent and what you're up against number three come up with a plan look for those roots kind of test the waters a little bit number four leverage like I said is your friend leave those stumps up and number five just patience take your time I know it gets frustrating because you want to get it done immediately but some things just take a little bit of time now we didn't even talk about grinding stumps which is the subject for another day but that's not a bad way to go either one thing I like about digging these stumps out though is I get the majority of the roots out with the stump a lot of times when people grind stumps they just kind of get the middle out and you've got those roots sometimes they go at 10 12 feet and then you come out here you know a year from now with a tiller trying to till it up and you're hitting all those roots there's still going to be roots in here my opinion I think you're going to get a few less if you dig the stump out and it's gone so I'm kind of working my way this direction towards the mini cabin I don't know if you can see it I cannot believe that thing is still standing uh there are trees down all around it but it appears in that Windstorm that it didn't get hurt but this one here is quite a mess we got a maple wedged in between this cherry 's broke off there there's another big Cherry down laying on top of that Maple a little Cherry beside it another Cherry below it another Maple and a cherry down that way but yeah once I get all this cleaned up in here I'll kind of just expand this way a little bit and I'll have a Long Meadow here probably about 150 yards long 100 yards wide maybe I don't know but anyway the sun's coming out but I hear thunder off in a distance and we're gonna wrap this video up I appreciate y'all being here I also want to thank ag1 for sponsoring today's video I will catch you on the next one

Channel: Outdoors With The Morgans

Views: 70,170

Keywords: firewood, country living, tractors, sawmill, woodmizer, jeep, ford bronco, wranglerstar, wild wonderful off grid, best chainsaw, stihl, husqvarna, polaris, kubota, john deere, zero turn mower, cabin in the woods, off grid, entrepreneur, make money, farm, garden, how to build, diy, lawn care, side jobs, f 150, ford, yanmar, tym, ls tractors, land plane, cabin living, excavating, small business, excavator, skid loader, dozer, tree felling, chainsaw sharpening

Id: s8g0_vBpOlE

Length: 20min 48sec (1248 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 10 2023