How much dirt have you seen moved by hand?

   / How much dirt have you seen moved by hand? #51  
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:

Uh, What?, You got PAID???
 
   / How much dirt have you seen moved by hand? #52  
Dug out under a 2000 square foot house a ten foot basement and transported the dirt around the corner to use as fill dirt for my parents back yard. All done by hand and shovel and pick axe. Fist take out the dirt with pick axe then shovel it into wheelbarrow and the pull it up the ramp wi a rope and two people and one person on the handles. Then shovel it into a two yard cement mixing pan and drive it around the corner and repeat by shoveling out and wheeling it around the house load by load. Then carrying rail road ties around and usuinf a bit and brace to drill and then hammer in the rebar. The coach was surprised I was so strong but did not lift weights.
 
   / How much dirt have you seen moved by hand? #53  
Uh, What?, You got PAID???

That's as my thought as well!

Never got any pay and we even got rented out to other family members.

Its sad to me that this being possible is even a question!
 
   / How much dirt have you seen moved by hand? #54  
That's as my thought as well!

Never got any pay and we even got rented out to other family members.

Its sad to me that this being possible is even a question!

You are making incorrect assumptions.
 
   / How much dirt have you seen moved by hand? #55  
Well, everyone else is telling their stories, I guess I will tell ours. Many years ago when we were young my wife and I ordered a triple axle dump truck load of 1 inch gravel to spread on the dirt floor of our open sided "barn". Of course the driver could not spread the gravel with the truck due to the overhead obstruction, so he dumped it in a pile outside. I cannot remember exactly how much it was, but it was a heck of a big pile. The wife and I started in on it with our shovels. That is what we had. Pick up a shovelful, walk over to the area to start spreading it on the floor and fling it. We worked on it every nite after work and on weekends. Somewhere along the line I built a piece of 2x12 with two upright pipes as handles and a dual chain to hook to the the lawn tractor to help spread it with one person on the lawn tractor and the other operating the upright handles to use the 2x12 as a "blade" with the lawn mower going in a big circle to scrape a load of gravel over to the area. Trouble with that was it worked the heck out of the guy on the "blade" and moved very little product. Anyway we worked on this off and on for weeks. It got done. We bought a tractor with FEL not long after that. Old "blue" would have done the whole job probably in an hour.

Lessons learned: moving a big pile of gravel or dirt by hand is a big job. Hydraulics are a wonderful thing. When you are young and stupid (and healthy) some of these things look easier going in than they are. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger..
 
   / How much dirt have you seen moved by hand? #57  
Not picking on anyone, but why all the comments "when we were young and stupid"? I don't think anyone was stupid or foolish for doing something the hard way. Sometimes it was the only way at the time and circumstances.

When we were just starting out, money was tight for us. We had 22 tons of pulverized limestone delivered and dumped on the ground. Fortunately we did have a FEL on our tractor to load several tons of the lime at a time on the bed of an old hay wagon without sides. My wife slowly drove the tractor pulling the wagon load of lime between the rows of apple and pear trees as I shoveled the lime off by hand throwing it as best I could to spread it out.

It wasn't the ideal way to spread the lime, but it got the job done. Yes, we were younger and healthier at that time, but certainly not supid or foolish. That's just one of many examples of doing what we had to do and with the only means we had to do it with at the time.
 
   / How much dirt have you seen moved by hand? #58  
In our case, if we weren't "young, healthy and foolish" we could have rented a tractor with a FEL for a day at that time for certainly less than $100 and had done and over with in no time, and not have aches and pains for a long time. Does it build character.? I dunno, but it sure help build callosus. Since we are older, way less healthy, and way way smarter, even if I did not have a tractor, (which I obviously do) I would rent one to do a job like that.

After we got our first tractor, shortly after the gravel incident, we discovered a myriad of uses for it, we just looked at each other and said: "why didn't we do this sooner".
 
   / How much dirt have you seen moved by hand? #59  
Yep, bought my first tractor AFTER I built my house. Young and poor will make you work hard if you want it done.
 
   / How much dirt have you seen moved by hand? #60  
Not picking on anyone, but why all the comments "when we were young and stupid"? oldoak

were we young & stupid now we wouldn't have the time to make comments like this. (myself included, i'm just old and stupid now).... we would just be doing the stuff of life as it should be..... but i'm grateful at this advanced stage to have the equipment to get the job done and to make comments on the forum. each life stage has benefits. best wishes
 

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