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.
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.
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.
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.