Sunday 10 October 2010

Stump grinding

Sorry, there's a re-occurring theme of knobs and stumps at the Sow's Ear at the moment. Naturally, all unintended innuendo.

Our old mango tree stump near the external side stairs is no longer after a spot of stump grinding. We are clearing the area to make way for new side stairs.

We called in the professionals because the stump was literally petrified wood and also enormous. Jason's axe would bounce off the tree stump with hardly a dent.

I also had to get out my tape measure to measure it for the grinding quote- it was well over 1 1/2 metres wide!

Anyway, I was completely blown away by the stump grinding machine ( note to self: need to go out more).

My alternative post headings were going to be: Veni, vidi, vici or Tonka toys on steroids. Check out the images below and you'll see why.


The stump grinding machine arriving. (sorry, photo taken through a window)

It was operated by remote control. The clever thing is doing a u-turn!

Getting ready to make mince meat out of the tree stump

It swept from side to side, ripping the tree stump into shreds


Sated and crawling away to its master
Lots of mulch left behind to spread onto the garden beds.
The whole grinding process from go to whoa was about 40 minutes. It was incredible to watch it shred the stump so effortlessly - you seriously wouldn't want to fall into that beast's path.

The mob we used were fantastic. The quote was competitive, they scheduled the job quickly and best of all, they arrived when they said they would. You really can't get better than that.

If you are located in the Brisbane area and need stump grinding, their details can be found here.

On another topic, Jason was chuffed with all your well wishes for his 40th Birthday. He really was. He had a terrific day off - lots of fun being a hoon. xx

18 comments:

  1. Lucky you got in before the rain hit! How effective and efficient - 40 mins - job done! Can't wait to see your new stairs in place. ;-)

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  2. Great post! I hope people come here from my latest and read this one! It's got a bit of everything. That stump was quite incredible!

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  3. How interesting. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a stump grinding machine. I don't blame you for watching from behind a closed window. x

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  4. When you finally get out more can you take me with you! I was completely transfixed a few years ago watching the same operation...or perhaps it was the operator now I think of it :)

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  5. You can almost hear it saying 'Yes master, thank you master' as it drives away from it's 'feast' - LOL...Terese

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  6. Very impressive. Once you pay off initial outlay it must be quite a profitable business. Note to self- bear in mind for future business enterprises!! Poor mango tree? Or not really?

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  7. Not really Jane. Mango trees have invasive roots and it was probably cut down (before our time here)because it was too close to the house and was lifting up the concrete paths. Anyway, we have another mango tree in the corner of the back yard.

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  8. Hey, how come you missed out on the 24/7 rain? Powerful stuff .. those machines... we have had similar noisy weekends..... I spent yesterday afternoon watching a spectacular demolition in the next street to us... the old indoor sports centre. Lots of twisted corrugated iron and wrenching of iron beams... the sound was horrendous. I was with my youngest who was nonplussed. I was the one doing all the whooping, whistling and cheering! A-M xx

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  9. Ha! I should've mentioned we had it done on Thursday before all the wet weather hit, A-M. Thankfully. I love a demolition too.x

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  10. That's quite a machine. A friend of mine (tree surgeon) has got one like that. He also has the largest chipper in Europe - it will reduce a 100 foot, 3 foot diameter log to dust in under 2 minutes!

    What with your title 'Stump Grinding' and my mate with the largest chipper in Europe, I bet a lot of people's 'safe search' filters have deleted this post from the airwaves...

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  11. Oh no - the verification word for the above? 'plate'

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  12. I'm so naive I had to google it. TOM!!

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  13. that is really cool. i would have liked to see that thing in action
    ~laura

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  14. That tree must have been massive...can you imagine how many bats etc must have crapped over the sow's ear whilst pigging out on mangoes back in its day. Very snazzy machine, cheers Katherine

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  15. That's so impressive! Id have been excited too - but probably more excited that they just turned up on time!!!

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  16. Bet your kids were good once they saw what that machine could do!! May even get to investigate the mulch myself ;-)

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  17. Wow, that's quite amazing! I would have been fascinated..Rachaelxx

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  18. Just made my way here via Woogs World, nice blog! We are also renovating a house in Brisbane, sadly not a queenslander, just a crappy high set. I have never seen a stump grinder in action, so thanks for the post. How on earth did you restrain your boys from it??

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