I think Bill offers good suggestions. I have also cut an old walnut stump that had been dead for a couple of years, and it had some very fine wood in it. The owner of the land dug around it a bit with a backhoe and broke up the roots about 3' or so out from the stump, then pushed it over and rolled it up out of it's hole for me. It was pretty easy to load from that point onto a large flat trailer we had, and I hauled it away for him. We used a high pressure washer to knock away the biggest majority of the dirt and mud, and I am sure that saved a chain saw blade or two. We also bought a relatively inexpensive ripping attachment for the chainsaw, then had at it. We cut a number of 3"+ thick slabs from it, probably 35 or so in all, stickered them and dried them for about three years, until they had lost a lot of their remaining water, then cleaned up the slabs and ran them through a planner. Surprise, Surprise!! Those old walnut stumps can yield some beautiful wood. I still have some of it, and have had several machined into "replacement" wood for my guns. Good luck with yours.
