As part of the demolition work there were a couple of tree stumps which needed to be removed from the front garden.

If you want to get some large tree stumps out of the ground and at the same time make a complete mess of your garden then what you are going to need is one of these.

The first tree stump to be tackled was the one of the conifer near the front door. This had been cut down many years ago and as the bucket of the excavator was swung it its general direction it just gave up and fell over. Easy we thought... lets move onto the second one.

This proved to be an altogether different proposition. If you look at the preparation page you'll see this in the bottom of the third picture. Looks OK doesn't it, not too big. Now compare that to the picture on the left and you'll see how much was below the ground.

This one did not give up without a fight, but after much slipping about of the digger in the sodden ground and the creation of a large hole, it eventually succumbed to our will. We also found out today how much the roots of a eucalyptus tree look like a cable or a black water pipe as there were a few loud cries to the digger driver to stop when we spotted one in the bottom of the hole.

This is a picture taken from roughly the same angle as the one on the preparation page showing the results of today's digger activity.

You may have noticed the hedge alongside the driveway missing in the previous picture.

This I cut down with a chainsaw along the root base.

This picture shows it stacked at the bottom of the garden. Once it has dried out a little and the green has gone from the leaves it will be burned to dispose of it.

I'm sad to see my hedge go, but it is a necessary, and worthwhile, sacrifice.

Here's a picture of the driveway showing where the hedge used to be.

Once the driveway was completed to the stage where we had a usable surface and the retaining wall was placed almost all the way back we got to another couple of tree stumps that needed dealing with.

In the picture you can see the two tree stumps in question and the retaining wall can be seen to the right.The wall is going to have to come back along this fence line, so the stumps had to come out to allow this to happen.

These tree stumps didn't put up too much of a fight though and we managed to pull them out with the digger without any dramas.