Stump carving has begun!

I sharpened up the chainsaw today and started cutting back the area outside of where the nose will be. My plan is to get all the features that stick out done first, leaving a lot of cutting the excess.

The tulip poplar wood is carving pretty easily so far, a lot easier than a hard wood would be to carve.  I'm getting a good cutting line by lifting the saw up and letting gravity work to define the edge, then I'm cutting on an angle to create strips of wood that I can pry off with a pry bar, one strip at a time.  This is going to take a while.  After about an hour of holding that saw up, my arms and shoulders are killing me!