Chain sawing wet conifer roots.

PS. The arthritis in my hands just gives me a great deal of pain after working. Holding the chain saw is not a major difficulty, hitting things with an axe is.

 

If the root ball is out but still in the hole, start backfilling the hole with soil to one side of root then roll root onto that soil, then fill other side and move root back till it's level with ground and then you can roll to where you want, that's what I did with a 8 foot root which I could lift and couldn't get digger any where near it

 

You may be astonished to learn that by drilling holes in the root I wanted out and then using the chain saw across the holes, I have managed to remove the amount of root we wanted. I can now fill the 'crater' and the roots left in will be at least 9 inches below the soil.
That seems to be the way ahead for any of the other roots I want out, Drill and then saw (after cleaning off any soil etc.
When we were faced with a huge rock which we could not lift, we rolled it into one of those builder's bulk bags and dragged it up a plank out of the hole. Easy.

 

Is this at your new property @Palustris ? is it as big as the last garden.

 

Yes, the garden here was full of Conifers with a Leylandii hedge top and bottom. The bottom hedge is now out and replaced with a fence. The top hedge will go next year.
This garden is probably about a quarter of the size of the last place.
This is what we began with in this part of the garden.