Stump Grinding Again, Moving the Mulch Pile · · PAGE 22.

September 11, 2014: Thursday and the guys from Jenkins Tree Service came back to do more stump grinding.  Some of the grinding goes 6 inches or more below ground level, but not all of it.  The end result of previous grinding still had tree trunk above ground level that had been buried by the saw dust pile created by the grinder.

The grinder ran out of gas twice as there was much to do, as seen by the size and depth of the saw dust.

The crew left before lunch and I took this photo when I came out after lunch.   I had moved two loads of mulch before lunch and several more after lunch.

This photo shows a portion of the trunk near the center.  There is still a lot of trunk and roots covered by mulch.  I used the leaf blower to uncover this area near the middle.

I took this photo to show how much saw dust was thrown up on the windows and the roof.  Saw dust was also thrown into the plant area near the wall.  The saw dust covered the leaves that are on the ground around the plants.

With the loss of the shade provided by the tree that is now gone, I put up some insulation against the single-pane glass windows.  This photo shows the saw dust thrown up from the stump grinder.  I used the leaf blower to remove it after taking this photo.  The insulation behind the foil is half an inch thick with a plastic layer on the inside of the two panels I cut to fit over the windows.  The panels are hidden from view inside the bedroom by the vertical blinds.  The afternoon temperature in the bedroom is definitely cooler.  A single 4 by 8-foot piece of insulation cost about 10 dollars at Lowe's.  I bought it the same day I picked out the tiles for the living room.

I noticed another dead tree limb on the ground near the palm trees close to the northwest corner of the lot.  The fallen limb was not there this morning.  I looked up to see a couple of more dead limbs that could fall when the wind blows hard enough.

Two more dead limbs could fall soon from the neighbor's tree that has a limb over our two palm trees behind the house.

September 13, 2014:   Saturday is a good day to catch up on chores.  Getting the mulch off the grass around the tree stump location is again on my agenda.  I started in the morning to move mulch in the wheeled trash can as usual.  I kept the camera on my tripod to take five photos of my progress before and after lunch.  Each photo in this animation displays briefly in a continuous loop.  Watch the shadows move from one photo to the next.

I placed the leaf blower as a height reference before I moved the camera down to the sidewalk to see the relative height of the mulch pile above a part of the stump as seen in the last of the five animated images seen looping above.  The handle is just barely above the mulch as seen here.  The top of the handle sits 12 inches above the floor when I put the blower on a level surface.  Taking this photo gave me a chance to get out of the direct sunlight.

Here are three more animated photos taken from the west side of the pile as I continue to move loads of mulch.  Take notice of the shadow movements in these pix.   The first of the three images has the red blower pointing toward the camera.   It is in the same location as seen from the sidewalk and almost totally hidden by the mulch as seen in the photo just above.

The hottest part of the day is the time to take a break, cool off with some ice water and frozen grapes and post these photos.  This one is a parting shot of the view from near the northwest corner of the Florida Room.  The mulch seen here is the same amount as in the last of the three animated photos seen just above.

September 20, 2014:   Here is the update on the results of the last stump grinding to bring it down to ground level.  The resulting sawdust pile created during the grinding covered some areas that did not get the attention needed.  Here is the stump clear of any sawdust mulch.  The leaf blower has been placed in the same place as seen in a photo above.   The surface root indicated below could be a hazard to a lawn mower when grass can again cover that area.

The view from the sidewalk now shows the 12-inch high pile of sawdust mulch that has been removed.  The black trash can is about 3/4 full of mulch to be spread over the low spots that remain in the tree stump area.  All the other mulch created from stump grinding is piled around the Tree Philodendron plants in the background.   I have not yet raked the mulch piles into a uniform ground cover.  This photo clearly shows the ground contour around the stump area lower on the west side (left).

Here is the previous photo from September 13 taken from the sidewalk showing how deep the sawdust mulch was piled on the ground.

This current view shows two areas where surface roots remain along the west side of the stump and could be a hazard for lawn mower blades.  If there is to be any final stump grinding done, the yellow-outlined area between the two surface roots should also be lowered to allow for a clean sod installation without raising the overall ground level too much.

Here is another view from the other side of the stump area looking at the surface root seen at the right side of the photo above.  The photo also shows some difference in height of the center area with grinder marks clearly visible.  I don' think that difference is going to be an issue since the center area will be buried under mulch before any grass sod would be laid over this area.

The parting shot shows the whole area with a red outline where mulch already been spread into a low area.  There is still sawdust in the surrounding grass area that needs to be raked, then blown toward the trunk area to give the grass a better chance at full recovery.