FIELD NOTES: The Hickory Stump ~by Jim Eagleman
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ou will relate to this article if at some time or another you have cut wood with a chainsaw. I am not talking about just those men who’ve done it, for I’ve seen many women handle a saw with great ease and care. My wife, Kay for example, having watched YouTube videos and observing me on many occasion buzz up a log for firewood, grabbed for the saw one day and proudly said, “I can do that!” “Woah, wait,” I said, as I gave her a pair of chaps (the orange kind that prevent injury), gloves, and my hard hat with face, head, ear, and eye protection. Then I handed her the saw. I could’ve used her help recently when I decided to tackle an old pignut hickory stump that had remained off to the side of our road for years. It was time to remove this eyesore and hazard. It wasn’t so dangerous that we could drive into it, it was just a nuisance. Kay was visiting her mother for a few weeks, and with our daily calls back and forth, I told her of my project. “Be careful”, she said.
58 Our Brown County Jan./Feb. 2022
Another reason to remove the stump came from my friend, Lanny who kept saying over the years, “Get rid of that thing, will you?” It was time. I dug out three other stumps next to a studio we recently built, so I thought I had some experience. But I wanted more options, so I looked up again on YouTube some suggestions that ranged from burning them out, to using a stump grinder, to good old fashion cutting the stump sections out with the chain saw. My good friends at Bear Hardware did rent out a grinder but the fee seemed a little high for my project and they weren’t all that impressed with its performance. I didn’t want a smoldering, smokey stump for a week or more. I’d have to dig out and remove the charred remains. So, I chose the chainsaw option. But I had forgotten how tough this pignut hickory stump was—at least 25 years old and a good 5 feet across. The wood wasn’t punky or rotten as you might think. It was incredibly dense.
