toilet flange too high

[galerie]

as you can see the toilet flange is too high, I am remodeling my bathroom and want the flange lower, if you notice in the pictures, there is some sort of soft stuff between the flange/closet and the pipe going down. The stuff on top of the flange is hard. Is there any way I could remove this and put in another closet/toilet flange that I could lower. Maybe I could dig out the soft stuff and then try to pull the flange up out from the pipe

 

[Mr_David]

Here is how you replace a cast Iron flange

C.I flanges are normally installed with lead and Oakum.
That flange looks to be unusually high.

http://www.plumbingforums.com/forum/f19/replacing-cast-iron-water-closet-flange-410/