One Man Gas Auger

[sdef]

Some of these comments are sooo funny. Ha, ha.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Clay would be a dream for me but only talking about drilling holes though. Hitting roots or large rocks is not fun.

The worst conditions for digging post holes in my experience is river bottom land that has the magic combination of sand and baseball to football sized stones. Sand like you find in the desert isn't bad if you can water your holes as you dig. Without the water you end up with an inverted cone, two foot across the top to get a hole two feet deep. When you add the stones the water trick doesn't work worth a flip. There the most efficient method is the old fashioned post hole diggers with twice as much patience as you have time.

Today I dug three post holes in between two hedges. The holes were three feet deep and the soil is our infamous gumbo clay. First two feet was all about cutting through the roots. There was no access for the auger since I was working alone.

I applied for a patent almost a year ago for an anvil for smacking the clay off the post hole diggers. It works like a fire hose in a water fight.

Most folks look at it and think boot scraper on steroids, but inertia is your friend. You smack the shovel or post hole digger against the arc of the anvil and the shovel stops, clay keeps right on going.

 

[bindian]

Well, Luke and spent 6 hours Friday putting in 8 post holes. That auger works great, but in the black gumbo around Manor, it just gums up the auger flukes, then when you pull it out........it rotates like the shaft is bent. The first hole went well. But then we had to slam it down and them muscle it back up. This even with standing water in one hole. Sometimes we went too deep (before pulling out and clearing the hole) and it took the two of us to pull it up. We finished the 9th and 10th hole Saturday morning. We were about half way down the last hole...............when I realized my daughter has a 53 inch wide side gate and I could have rented a mini track loader with an auger on it. Believe me...........knowing what I know now.................I would spent $200 or more for a loader and auger rental. We both feel like we have been sking all day after laying off of it all winter.
hugs, Brandi