How much dirt have you seen moved by hand?

[DJ54]

Where there's a will, there is a way. Several years ago, we moved 50 tons of limestone in one day by bucket brigade. It took 50 people, and a lot of 5 gallon buckets. We had a couple casualty's, buckets that is, not people, so 100+ buckets were used. We were surfacing a bridle trail up to what is known as 21 Horse Cave (you can fit 21 horses & riders in the cave pictured) in Hocking State Forest in SE Ohio.

Nearly 100 people benched out the trail first, in about 2 hours. ODNR has a small trail, tracked dump truck that can haul about 3 tons, started hauling in #4's for base, while we were benching. Once done, 50 or so started moving the stone, while the remainder started building a split rail fence. The buggy had to haul about 1.5 miles back into us, so it took them a while to make a round. Within 2 hours, we'd packed more then they had hauled, and were pretty surprised we were waiting on material.

Once the #4's were down, we covered it with a #67D limestone mix, for a top coat.

It's amazing the work that can be done, with a large group of people willing to work, with very few simple tools.

In the Spring of 2007, we move 40 tons of the same type material, using 15 horses, 1 mule, and me & my Donkey Percy pictured here. I built the racks to fit his pack saddle. They would fill 5 gallon buckets to keep a pretty even measure of weight, of 90 lbs., then dump in feed sacks. The hang on a critter the best way they could. Then half of the group at a time, would make an 1100' trek uphill to a natural rock cut known as Fat Man's Squeeze. The crew on the hill would lead one in at a time, unload, then spread the material. 9 or 10 was all the room we had for that many animals & people to wait at a time. This one actually took longer, because of the wait time at each end. We did this one in 2.5 days.

 

[3930dave]

Some impressive examples ^.

In historical terms, humans have only been able to be as lazy as many have become (me included) for the blink of an eye.

Rgds, D.

 

[Rustyferrious]

When I was 13 my dad decided he wanted to connect the garage to our finished basement with a set of stairs. He broke up a 8' x 6' section of the concrete floor and I dug out the pit by hand, 8' deep. Had my kid brother and some neighborhood kids equipped with ropes and buckets haul up the dirt and trek it across the back yard to the garden plot. The following year I dug out a 20' square cellar, 8' deep, under an existing house by hand. Last big project I did by hand, age 56, was a 30' x 20' patio with steps & a retaining wall. Took all summer but I hauled 150 barrow loads of soil out and 150 loads of crushed stone and other material in by hand. Then I bought the BX..........must be getting lazy.

 

[Deere Dude]

We have some friends that bought a new house in town. They need about 20 yards of topsoil for their backyard.

There is no way to dump the dirt in the back yard due to fences and a narrow alley.

I have a dump truck and a mountain of topsoil. They want me to dump it in their front yard and say they wheel barrow it back there. I think they are nuts as this will be around 250 wheelbarrow loads.

I want to help them but I don't want to put an insurmountable pile of dirt in front of their brand new house and then have them be upset about it. I tried explaining the volume and amount of work to them but I don't think it is registering.

Could a portion of the the fence come down? If a friend had a FEL on a small tractor even if it was just to lift the dirt into a wheelbarrow, that would be a great help. Maybe a garden tractor with a cheapo dump cart would help in the process.

Days of heavy duty manual labor seem to be over but this project could be done. Maybe they will call in a bunch of friends and make a party of it. My friends generally stay away when I begin something though.

 

[plowhog]

Some impressive work stories here. Like when a few of us logged the Sahara Forest. We turned that place into a desert!

If I was involved with this, I'd have a SCUT tractor at the dirt pile, using the loader for each wheelbarrow load. Then the worker bees would only be transporting and dumping. I'd also have plenty of aspirin and beer.

 

[dieselcrawler]

I'd also have plenty of aspirin and beer.

Wise move, depending on the age of the work force... I remember the days I was willing to work for beer. Now I would offer to supply my own if I only watched everyone else work!

 

[tcartwri]

Co workers father drove dump trucks in the 40's and he used to hand load his truck after hours in order to get one more load in the next morning.... He did that for years apparently.

 

[MossRoad]

About 30 years ago I used to work with this little old lady. Her husband, a little old man, was in the business of putting basements under houses that had no basements. He'd get on his hands and knees and start by climbing into the crawlspace and shoveling out a hole big enough for him to stand. He'd then slide a conveyor into the hole. From inside, he'd fill a bucket with dirt and dump it on the conveyor. The conveyor would take it out of the basement and into the back of a 50's era single axle dump truck parked near the house. As he'd dig around the perimeter, he'd shore the house up with cribbing. Sometimes he had to jack the whole house up a few inches, too. Then he'd build forms and pour footings. Then he'd lay cement block walls. All from inside and under the house. Then he'd set the house down on the new walls and eventually dig out the entire basement dirt. Once he got enough room, he'd use a wheelbarrow under the house, but still, all the digging was done by hand.

He'd done this type of work his entire life. He was in his 70's and was thinking about retiring.

She said in the mornings, she'd have to pull him up out of bed to a sitting position and oil his joints. After half an hour, he could start moving. I used to see them in the grocery store after she retired. He'd be hunched over the cart shuffling along. Both were all smiles all the time.

He died sitting next to her in church one Sunday morning. Just leaned over on her shoulder and died.

That was probably the hardest working man I'd ever met.

 

[Sprinklerman]

One cubic yard of topsoil weighs approximately 1,080 pounds. This estimate is based on the calculation that 1 cubic yard equals 27 cubic feet. One cubic foot of topsoil weighs approximately 40 pounds.


It can be done , but if you are not use to it , you will pay the price .

 

[ray66v]

About 30 years ago I used to work with this little old lady. Her husband, a little old man, was in the business of putting basements under houses that had no basements.

45 years ago, my father decided we would do that under our house.

That was when I first learned what hard work was.