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What's the biggest hole you've ever dug? (1 Viewer)

cosjobs

cosjobs

Footballguy
When I graduated high school, I decided to work for a year or two before going to college. My first job was at The City of Port Arthur Water Department. We had to dig up lines for repair, but never more than a few deep deep and a foot or two wide. Next job I worked at a cable company, burying coaxial cable through entire neighborhoods. Those were mostly buried by machines, but there were plenty of opportunities for me to hand dig foot wide trenches, from five to 100 feet long. My desire for higher education increased by the shovel load.
In movies I'm always seeing people digging these huge holes, like five or ten feet square and eight foot deep or even larger. Its usually one guy, who never encounters rocks or roots. This seems implausible to me.
What's the biggest single hole you have ever dug?
 
Buried my cat(already dead) a few weeks ago and commented to my friend that if I were in a Goodfellas type situation I would just tell the bent noses to shoot me cuz aint no way I'm digging my own grave. That spit is exhausting.

And yes, copious amounts of roots and rocks.
 
When I was like 18, I was working as a plumber's helper. We spent a couple of weeks at a new commercial property digging a huge trench for drainage pipes. On a couple of days it rained like hell and we had to spend the next day, knee deep in mud, digging it back out. On a brutally hot summer day in NY, that was not fun.
 
jamny said:
When I was like 18, I was working as a plumber's helper. We spent a couple of weeks at a new commercial property digging a huge trench for drainage pipes. On a couple of days it rained like hell and we had to spend the next day, knee deep in mud, digging it back out. On a brutally hot summer day in NY, that was not fun.
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preach
 
I've dug many a hole and many trenches (also a helper way back) and it used to be no big deal. I have a need for digging a 100' trench to move stormwater further away from the house. Got an estimate from one place that was way high but thinking about digging that trench, even if I rent a machine, doesn't sound pleasant at my age now.
 
Dug holes for some trees not long after we bought our house. From memory I'd say they were about 3 feet deep and a diameter of 4-5 feet. I was a lot younger then, but it still sucked because the soil had a high percentage of clay, so the digging consisted mostly of breaking things up with a digging bar and a pick ax and then shoveling out the loosened chunks. Apart from one fairly large rock I didn't hit much in the way of obstructions, though.
 
Probably roughly 3'x3'x2' when I was about 12 and had to bury my dog.

Recently, fruit tree planting. 3'x2' circular holes but our property is built on an old shell midden so after the 1' of topsoil it's a brutal dig through oyster, clam, and conch shells. A lot of stopping and pulling them out after they're loose. The millions of little cuts on the hands from the shell edges is the worst. I always intend to hire it out but invariably just go for it.
 
We have people for this. Seriously. We put in a swim spa and half-buried it. They used a tiny digger for that. (We named it Tony Danza.) That would have been very bad to do by hand.
 
Buried a few large dogs. Those were about 3’x 4’.

I’ve dug about 100+ holes for fence posts. Those were all 36” deep for frost.

I’m currently digging and moving about 6 cubic yards by wheelbarrow. About two more to go.

My body hurt like hell for a few weeks but now I’m farm strong. 💪🏼
 
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I fixed a few sprinklers this weekend and digging a hole 18" deep and 2 foot across in a yard with 4 mature oaks is alot of work.
 
Funny this should come up. I was in Texas for work most of last week. I got back on Friday night to find a giant hole dug in our courtyard. My son decided he'd help his mom plant some plants and is in the process of digging a pretty nice-sized hole. I don't know what they're planting there. :shrug:
 
I think I have dug holes for tomato plants and residential fence posts. Not very deep. I don't see a scenario where I go deeper in the future.
 
cosjobs said:
My desire for higher education increased by the shovel load.
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This is me. I would work summers for my dad as an electrician's apprentice and that mostly consisted of digging trenches, pulling wire, and hauling equipment around the job site. My dad said it was a good way to appreciate why I was going to college and to ensure I got good grades. It worked for sure.
 
Worked a summer job in college installing above ground swimming pools (with a fellow FBG). We would hand dig the deep end for the large oval pools. Money was good, but I only lasted half the summer.
 
Al Czervik said:
Worked a summer job in college installing above ground swimming pools (with a fellow FBG). We would hand dig the deep end for the large oval pools. Money was good, but I only lasted half the summer.
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Wait above ground pools had deeps ends?
 
cosjobs said:
-OZ- said:
cosjobs said:
belljr said:
By hand or with machine aid
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Hand
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Maybe a few inches. For anything larger I use a shovel.

Seriously though, we used to dig trenches in the infantry. 4’ x 3’ took entirely too long.
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Did you have to use those little folding shovels? How long did it take?
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E-tools were designed only for pooping.
With the mechanized unit we had shovels. Thankfully we usually would get engineer support to dig in the Bradleys (not the dismounted).
I dont remember all the details, but probably 4 hours or more total - including cover. I recall one time being somewhat happy that we were only halfway done and got attacked.
 
I've known a few pita dogs that enjoyed digging holes where they were not wanted. Is there a way to train them to dig a specific spot? That would be a useful skill for a dog imo.
 
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