Despite being in the middle of painting, and a bathroom remodel, I choose to spend the weekend digging out our ball hedges instead.  Mostly because if this doesn’t get done soon, then it will be too late to plant the flowers in the space the hedges leave behind.  Pulling out the stumps was an all day task, involving a chainsaw, axe, shovel, pick, reciprocating saw, 30# digging bar, and many hours of back breaking labor.  Happily my wife helped and so we were able to finish before it got dark.  The stump removal process basicly involves digging around the stump and cutting most of the roots until there are few enough left that I can drag it out with my car.  The problem with these big stumps was that once my car dragged them out,  they were too heavy for me to drag  Thus getting them onto the side of the house (where they will dry out sufficently that I can then cut them up and put them at the curb) was quite a task by itself.