Just to the left of the garden shed (little white building) was an overgrown lilac that hardly bloomed. The lilac and its stump are gone in this picture.
August 23, 2020
I cut the sad lilac down with a chain saw. The lilac stump was maybe a foot across so I couldn't just dig it out. And who needs a stump in their sanctuary. So then I ground the stump down with a stump grinder! Both the chain saw and grinder I rented. The stump grinder rental cost is steep and they were $300 combined for the day.
Stump grinders are powerful beasts because they have to pulverize solid wood in the ground.
The rental center has the stump grinder machine ready on its own trailer, but you have to tow it home yourself. Backing up a trailer in reverse is tricky because the trailer wants to go in the opposite direction that you steer.
Ready for action!
The machine is heavy and it drives itself while you work the controls and walk next to it. You get nervous trying to figure out how it works (even though they explain it at the rental center).
I rented the stump grinder mainly to get rid of an old stump in the front yard that I was tired of mowing around. But also took care of the lilac to make it worth it. The stump is kind of in the shadow, under the cutter wheel.
In the above, you see the stump partially ground down.
It was 4 hours from when I picked up the rentals to when I returned them.
I returned it at 1pm and told the attendant that it worked great. He said he does alot of work to maintain the grinder. Thinking the stump grinder was his favorite of his rental equipment, I asked "so it's your baby" and in reply he said "more like the death of me!!" He went on to say, that some people rent it and abuse it by applying too much force or trying to grind stumps that are too big for it. So he has to spend time fixing it and charging customers $1000 to replace broken parts.
He was careful to explain how to use it gently before I took it home. And it has safety features that make it impossible to grind yourself up!
