How much dirt have you seen moved by hand?

[orezok]

You mean like this?
dirty jobs worst shoveling sand construction hard difficult clever ingenious working - YouTube

 

[MossRoad]

You mean like this?
dirty jobs worst shoveling sand construction hard difficult clever ingenious working - YouTube

Man! Did you see some of the follow-up videos?

Concrete in buckets!
Dirty Jobs Third World Ingenuity construction without machines worst job ever throwing sand buckets! - YouTube

 

[dalroo]

My uncle was the king of hiring me to do some crappy jobs, and most required moving dirt. He was a Super for a construction company and hired me the summer of 1980 (hottest summer on record) as a laborer on a lowrise office building. The walls were leaking on the basement parking garage so he had a backhoe come in and remove the dirt up against the wall, and then I came in. I had to tar the wall, using large rubber gloves, in 4' tall sections and then roll a layer of tar paper. I don't recall how long the walls were, but easily several hundred feet, and 3 rows each from bottom to top. The worst part was that we couldn't use the machine to backfill because we didn't want to rip the paper I had applied, so me and another guy filled it a shovel at a time. The job took almost the entire summer to complete.

Where there is a will.........but I also agree to better living through modern technology. Rent a small tractor.

 

[Stubee]

Most I've done is about 5 yards with a shovel and wheelbarrow. A friend dug out his old drain field by hand and got it set for a new larger field. Not sure how much dirt but it was a bit.

My wife's Grandpa Tom decided many years ago to dig a basement under his house in Minnesota. He came upon a huge boulder under the house and with no way to remove it he just dug around it & beneath it til it was below his new grade. He at least didn't have to wheelbarrow the dirt as his two sons were forced to join in this Herculean effort and carried countless buckets of dirt away to dump it.

I'll bet that was a few cubic yards.

 

[RaydaKub]

My wife's Grandpa Tom decided many years ago to dig a basement under his house in Minnesota. He came upon a huge boulder under the house and with no way to remove it he just dug around it & beneath it til it was below his new grade.

That's just adding insult to injury. Geez!

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Most I've done is about 5 yards with a shovel and wheelbarrow. A friend dug out his old drain field by hand and got it set for a new larger field. Not sure how much dirt but it was a bit.

My wife's Grandpa Tom decided many years ago to dig a basement under his house in Minnesota. He came upon a huge boulder under the house and with no way to remove it he just dug around it & beneath it til it was below his new grade. He at least didn't have to wheelbarrow the dirt as his two sons were forced to join in this Herculean effort and carried countless buckets of dirt away to dump it.

I'll bet that was a few cubic yards.

I'd rather be the one carrying buckets than the one standing under the boulder and digging.

 

[MossRoad]

Most I've done is about 5 yards with a shovel and wheelbarrow. A friend dug out his old drain field by hand and got it set for a new larger field. Not sure how much dirt but it was a bit.

My wife's Grandpa Tom decided many years ago to dig a basement under his house in Minnesota. He came upon a huge boulder under the house and with no way to remove it he just dug around it & beneath it til it was below his new grade. He at least didn't have to wheelbarrow the dirt as his two sons were forced to join in this Herculean effort and carried countless buckets of dirt away to dump it.

I'll bet that was a few cubic yards.

If that would have been my dad, I'd bet we'd have had a boulder coffee table in our basement. He liked stuff like that.

 

[Redlands Okie]

If that would have been my dad, I'd bet we'd have had a boulder coffee table in our basement. He liked stuff like that.

Now i like that, 100% common sense and practical as can be. Even better would be to have a good story on how hard it was to get it there.

 

[kc5dlo]

Not dirt, but many years ago I had a load of rock delivered to maintain my driveway. My good neighbor offered to get his old tractor started and put on a straight blade to spread it. (I had no tractor). I reasoned that I could make the gravel go further by spot placing it. I also reasoned it would be a good excuse for buying a little trailer for the lawn mower. I took Friday off and spent the entire day shoveling that gravel. I got it spread, but still needed another load. Before I ordered it I went next door and asked if the offer to spread it was still good. I would have not ordered it otherwise. I don't thing my body has been that sore since.

 

[stuckmotor]

You can move a whole lot of dirt by hand if the motivation is right.

I grew up just a few miles from this:

Cahokia Mounds |

That said, people who aren't used to such intense manual labor should be cautious trying to move mountains on wee
kends. No different than shoveling snow when you're out of shape.

My dad used to take us kids to a hill thought to have been an Indian mound located on Carolina's coastal plain. To explain it's formation he said that the Indians might have been required to bring a sack of dirt every time they went to church. It was a satisfactory explanation for a child.