Stefan Palokangas

You, clearly — you read the thread, clicked reply, and typed those two little words with your bottom lip quivering.

Yeah mate, absolutely — best thing to do with a stump is walk away. Maybe give it a little wave and whisper “good luck” as it starts sprouting back through the lawn. Clients love that. Real professional touch. Nothing screams “I know trees” like leaving half of it rotting in the ground. Must be nice, doing half a job and calling it a day. But hey — not everyone’s built to handle machines, noise, dust, and real graft. Some folks were born to admire stumps from a safe distance. You’re doing your part.

Haha, cheers Joe — you're not wrong that bad stump grinding can look easy… It’s just dropping a wheel and spinning it about, right? But anyone who’s been on a hill, tight access, near services, or grinding a concrete-infused nightmare of a poplar root ball knows it’s a different beast. Real operators make it look easy — that’s the trick. Same way a good climber makes a 60ft dismantle look like a stroll. But hey, if you ever fancy a go on a 50hp tracked grinder down a zigzag alleyway with dogs barking and a patio 2 inches away — I’ll keep a banana suit ready for ya 🍌😉

Just to add a bit of spice to this — it’s mad how many of the so-called "experts" out there seem to have swapped rakes for chainsaws overnight. One minute they’re cutting fairways on a golf course, next minute they’re bidding for full takedowns and grinding stumps like they’ve done their 10,000 hours. I started in the woods at 12 years old — actual forest work, not hedge-trimming in suburbia. Precision felling next to live power lines, working terrain most of these lads wouldn’t drive through. This game isn’t just gear and a logo on a van. It’s feel, it’s skill, and it’s earned. Anyway, keep the pics coming — the good, the bad, and the downright banana 🍌🔥

Right then, time to settle it once and for all. You lot know who you are — the ones who treat stump grinders like fine instruments, not sledgehammers. Let’s see your proudest work: clean removals, tricky roots, tight-access jobs. And for balance… let’s have a few snaps of the other kind too. Machines misused. Roots half-done. Jobs bodged by someone who thinks 361s and mini diggers are the same game. Pros vs posers — let the people decide 🍌🔥

Easy to stump grind, done many of that kind.

Don't know where to start, and if i say it as it is it will be offensive and might offend a snow flake somewhere and get reported. Alot of the banana pickers are snow flakes i been told, So for that reason i will say **************** all.

I'm 50 now, just seeing that number makes me wonder where the time went ? Mostly doing stump grinding with remote but due to the experience i got i take on trees and hedge work and pressure washing, did a hedge reduction today and oh my god am i sore now !!! Got a few days of grinding now so can have a rest but from Sunday and in to mid week from that it's hard shifts again, one of them is fallen trees the other is 350 sqm pressure washing, back to stump grinding again after that and then alot of fallen trees with tracked wood chipper. How are you guys over 50 doing out there ? Are you feeling it ? Or is it just me ? Just doesn't feel the same as it used to anymore.

I don't trust any of them, no one. you find me over there somewhere outside of it all...

Just seen a ad here, some skinny guy holding a 14hp stump grinder, i know folks been damaged in hands and shoulders using them machines. Be careful folks, them hand help machines some of them will destroy your hands and shulders. Instead of paying small money for that and destroy yourself, just go for it and get a wheeled or tracked machine, ain't worth it using your body as a punching bag.

In Sweden it's done for Tall and Gran, or scottish pine and spruce, the hardwood trees is great for wet areas to keep. or for a frost protection for the ones getting kept and taken away in second thinning.

I’ve done tree thinning in Sweden—first, second, and third cuts to give the best trees room to grow strong and fast. Seems like it’s not a big thing in Scotland, though. Wondering why—too much wind knocking them over, or just more into clear-felling here?

Well no music, no gossip, turn the mind on to work, do toilet in the morning, don't come and tell me you forgot this and that, I had a employee but due to disagreement i ended up with community service. I work alone now and will never get a employee again. Learned grass cutting and litter picking, new skills to my name.