How much dirt have you seen moved by hand?

[aczlan]

I came across this a few years ago. Never seen anything like it. I think there were five conveyors putting material into the dump truck.

View attachment 504488

No need to resod the customers lawn that way.

Aaron Z

 

[mapper]

My mother was a lifelong rhododendron and azalea enthusiast, around age 60 she decided to establish a new species bed. The bed was roughly triangular about 60' on the short sides. With a small stream running along one side. She determined that the native soil was inadequate for the task and needed to have the rocks screened out and amendments added - the top 2' (yep 24" here). The soil was clay loam so it was determined that it needed to be amended with sharp sand and decayed wood. The sand was delivered 10 yards at a time as she needed it, the decayed wood was mined out of every rotting stump within several hundred feet of the work site.
My folks lived on about eight forested acres on a mountainside, the stumps were left from the place being logged in the 1920s, most were Doug fir and cedar, 6-12' in diameter and up to 10' high.
She worked on this project and completed in about 3-4 years, when she was done the stumps were piles of the un-rotted bits with several 10-12" hemlock standing on 8-10' tall buttress roots above the remains. The species bed was done, she planted it with a wide variety of rhododendrons from dwarfs to tree types.
I do not know just how many yards of soil she sifted or how much sand and rotten wood was incorporated into it. Bottom line is this was done by a survivor of breast cancer who had two radical mastectomy operations that had taken all of her chest muscles as well.
The rhody bed exists to this day, the last time I saw it about four years ago the tree types were thirty feet or more high. I hope the folks that bought the place can appreciate it! I also hope that they like rhododendrons and azaleas because that project was not her first or last just the biggest!

 

[quicksandfarmer]

My mother was a lifelong rhododendron and azalea enthusiast, around age 60 she decided to establish a new species bed. The bed was roughly triangular about 60' on the short sides. With a small stream running along one side. She determined that the native soil was inadequate for the task and needed to have the rocks screened out and amendments added - the top 2' (yep 24" here). The soil was clay loam so it was determined that it needed to be amended with sharp sand and decayed wood. The sand was delivered 10 yards at a time as she needed it, the decayed wood was mined out of every rotting stump within several hundred feet of the work site.
My folks lived on about eight forested acres on a mountainside, the stumps were left from the place being logged in the 1920s, most were Doug fir and cedar, 6-12' in diameter and up to 10' high.
She worked on this project and completed in about 3-4 years, when she was done the stumps were piles of the un-rotted bits with several 10-12" hemlock standing on 8-10' tall buttress roots above the remains. The species bed was done, she planted it with a wide variety of rhododendrons from dwarfs to tree types.
I do not know just how many yards of soil she sifted or how much sand and rotten wood was incorporated into it. Bottom line is this was done by a survivor of breast cancer who had two radical mastectomy operations that had taken all of her chest muscles as well.
The rhody bed exists to this day, the last time I saw it about four years ago the tree types were thirty feet or more high. I hope the folks that bought the place can appreciate it! I also hope that they like rhododendrons and azaleas because that project was not her first or last just the biggest!

OK, you've shamed all of us! Time to get out from behind the computer and move some dirt!

 

[orezok]

Yep, but most people today don't know what manual labor is.

Actually, Manual is the guy who picked the lettuce you're eating. :laughing:

 

[Industrial Toys]

I hope he washed his hands.

 

[timswi]

Once we used a concrete pumper to do the floor of an addtion..Found out that the cement truck couldn't cross the bridge to the house so we filled a 1 ton dump 1/4 or so full and drove it to the pumper multiple times and then hand shoveled it from the dump to the hopper...Think I'd rather deal with dirt. That really sucked. :smiley_aafz:

 

[mapper]

OK, you've shamed all of us! Time to get out from behind the computer and move some dirt!

This was not me, she was the one who shamed us all. She was one tough old lady, I think she did it as stress relief, my dad was an invalid who had suffered a massive stroke that left him about ninety percent paralyzed on his right side, she was his sole caregiver.

 

[MossRoad]

Once we used a concrete pumper to do the floor of an addtion..Found out that the cement truck couldn't cross the bridge to the house so we filled a 1 ton dump 1/4 or so full and drove it to the pumper multiple times and then hand shoveled it from the dump to the hopper...Think I'd rather deal with dirt. That really sucked. :smiley_aafz:

Concrete in a shovel is about the worst.... in high school I worked for a brick mason as a laborer... talk about a workout. :confused3:

 

[paulfun9]

You are making incorrect assumptions.

Please do tell I assure you I am making no incorrect assumptions at all based on the posts. If you think I am then you are certainly the one making assumptions.

 

[JohnMacca]

All the stories here with shovel versus loader remind me of the 3 qualities a job can have.

Good, Quick and Cheap. The catch being that you can only ever have 2 out of the 3 on one job.

So, shovelling the load of dirt by hand will be Good and Cheap but not Quick, and using a loader will be Good and Quick but not Cheap.

(The other option - Quick and Cheap, but not Good - applies to Harbour Freight tools, from what I see her on TBN :laughing