Why stumps don't just go away
A hardwood stump in Tennessee Valley clay outlives everybody's patience. Oak and hickory stumps sit for a decade barely softening; sweetgum and hackberry do something worse — they sucker, sending up a ring of new shoots every time you cut them, which is how one removed tree becomes a permanent shrubbery project. Pine stumps rot faster but invite termites while they do it, which is nothing you want twenty feet from a slab foundation.
Grinding solves it mechanically: a carbide wheel chews the stump to well below grade — deeper on request if a fence post or footing is going there — and leaves a mound of mulch that settles into the hole. Backfill with a little topsoil and by June you'll mow straight over the spot.
Worth asking about
One trip covers multiple stumps for less per stump than doing them one at a time — if the back pasture has a collection, mention it. Say what the spot is going to be — lawn, fence line, driveway, garden — so the grind depth is right the first time. And if there's a chance of a buried utility, gas, or that mystery pipe every old farm place has, flag it; locates get called in before the wheel touches dirt.