How much dirt have you seen moved by hand?

[buckeyefarmer]

Over 20 yrs ago I thought about it, bought land and built instead.

 

[MossRoad]

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

That was when I first learned what hard work was.

Or as probably everyone's dad said to them at one time or another....

"It builds character." :laughing:

 

[ray66v]

Or as probably everyone's dad said to them at one time or another....

"It builds character." :laughing:

Yep.

He motivated my brother and I, by telling us he would pay us, when we it was all done.

When the big day came, we each got $20. :cool2:

 

[stuckmotor]

Bdog,
Please keep us posted. I can't wait to see how this one turns out.

 

[Duwop]

I shovel 22 tons of gravel out of a hi-lift dump onto a roof, yep was a roofer back before anyone knew what a conveyor was. Sure am glad I'm retired

 

[bcp]

Do big rocks count?

Bruce

 

[mapper]

The year I graduated from high school, I was hired for the summer at the local pulp and paper mill, after a couple of days they gave me and another guy to the pipe shop for a special project; we had to dig out a section of 36" water main. It was located behind the bleach plant, about 10-12' deep at the bottom of the pipe. Our tools were two shovels, a rope with a snatch block, a five gallon bucket, and a 4" diaphragm pump to keep the water down to 6" in the bottom of the hole. At the foundation of the bleach plant there was a space that had water and chlorine paper blowing out of it. After we had a good deal of it dug out a backhoe was brought in to dig out the other end of the hole. He got about two buckets out before hitting an overhead 2" pipe and breaking the flange, said pipe was carrying 98% sulfuric acid @90# pressure.
After the acid was cleaned up (washed down into our hole) the operator was taken to the ER, and the now paint free backhoe was towed off, we went back to work with our shovels and bucket. The water was now warm from the acid. When we were in the hole we wore: hard that, goggles, gas mask, neoprene rain suits, neoprene gloves and neoprene boots.
I don't know how much material we dug out of that hole but the pile was pretty big when we were done.
The fun part was jackhammering out the foundation wall around the pipe, yes the pipe was carrying water a pressure when we were working on it!

It worked out well in the end, he was assigned to the pipe shop as a helper and I was assigned to the electrical shop as a helper and spent the rest of the summer overhauling big 3 phase motors.

 

[MossRoad]

Do big rocks count?

View attachment 504325

Bruce

You got your AARP card, don't you....

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Could a portion of the the fence come down?

That's what I would investigate. You could rebuild a lot of fence in the time it takes to move 20 yards.

But as projects go it's not that impossible. As was noted, it's 135 wheelbarrow loads. If I was shoveling dirt off of a pile I wouldn't feel like I was slaving away if I did a wheelbarrow every ten minutes. At that rate it's 22 hours, two long days or three short ones. With more people and more wheelbarrows the time goes down proportionally. Four people it's not a bad Saturday job.

I'd worry more about what happens to the pile between when it gets dumped and when it gets moved. You'd want to move it right away.

 

[bcp]

You got your AARP card, don't you....

They wanted to build them point down to make shade, but I recommended point up for stability.

Bruce