Goodbye to 'The Stump'

We have been living in our current house, a mudbrick one on a large semi-bush block on the very edge of Bendigo for about 10 or so years.
 While our boys were young they continually played in the yard, but as they are now a lot older ( and one lives overseas) we rarely if ever use the majority of the yard.
 Since we have lived here, a key fixture in the yard has been 'the stump' just outside our door. It has been the site of many a photo, a place to stand to keep away from the dog and a prop for countless games.
However, the poor old stump has had its day as termites have moved in, so during our recent summer holidays it was decided (by my wife of course) that it had to go.
That meant I had to get rid of it!
The decision making process in our house is sometimes so democratic!!

For as long as we have lived here, we have known that the soil is only about one million times tougher than granite, so you can imagine how much I was looking forward to this.

One problem I have, and Jen keeps pointing it out to me, is that when I start a job like this I just go flat out and don't stop until it is done, nearly killing myself in the process. My brain must be wired to just start something and not stop until completion, it happens every time there is a really strenuous task to be done.
So, the chipping away started early one hot day (yeah, I know. Dumb time to do it, but as I've said, once I make the decision to do it, nothing much stands in the way). As I've dug out many trees before, I've learnt to keep the job tidy as the photos show.
It took the best part of 6 hours to get the stump cleared and ready to remove, but do you think it was going to come out of the hole? Not likely!
On my own I could rock it back and forth. With my son Will, who is tall and strong, we couldn't lift it out, so we pulled up stumps for the day.
I teed up a friend to come with his chainsaw the next day to split it, and early in the day 4 of Will's mates jumped in to try and lift it out, no luck.
My good mate Nev rocked up and duly cut as much of it as his chainsaw could, but we still couldn't get it out.
Solution? Tow ropes and a four wheel drive...Bingo!!
The trusty old stump is now cut up into good sized blocks ready to be burnt this Winter.

While do miss this trusty old friend, we do also realise that time caught up with it.

You can just see 'The Stump' in the foreground.

The green stuff is the grass that we have before and after Summer!!

Keeping it tidy...

Notice the distinct lack of anything green.

The frustrating stage of digging around the base.

Trying to split pieces from it.

It's starting to move...just.

So knackered I'm using the stump to hold me up!!

It moves!!!

The next day it was pulled out of the hole with a four wheel drive.