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This ditch digger is tired


Dottleshead

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Ugh.  Still completing work on my foundation.  I have to manually dig the remaining 6 holes in fill dirt crud that's takes forever to remove 2x2x2 area of basically rock and some soil.  Yesterday I started on the most difficult hole and about 1 inch deep I hit a rock -- check a friggin' bolder -- that was about 2/3 of the hole.  Naturally, I had trouble digging around it because there were gobs and gobs of smaller boulders and rocks making it incredibly frustrating to remove.  Well just before dark, I was able to dislodge it and roll it over on it's side in the pit.  I left it there because I had been digging almost 2 hours and I was both tired, weak, and in a give-a-rip mood.  I was done.  So tonight I get to go home and see if I can't hoist this bad boy out of the hole.  Not sure I can.  I'm pretty zapped at work right now and don't even feel like working.  I want to hire @Dirtyhip for financial classes -- but I'm also strongly considering her to remove the rock and maybe do all the rest. I bet if she schralps it a few times, it'll come right out.

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You don't want to hire me. I will scrub a budget pretty hard.  ?

Got a pry bar?  That is what you need to pry out a boulder.  You can bust it up using a sledge to get it into pieces that are more manageable and pry those suckers out..  This is what us trail builders do.  Sometimes we leave chunks to keep the trail fun and challenging.

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1 minute ago, Dirtyhip said:

You don't want to hire me. I will scrub a budget pretty hard.  ?

Got a pry bar?  That is what you need to pry out a boulder.  You can bust it up using a sledge to get it into pieces that are more manageable and pry those suckers out..  This is what us trail builders do.  Sometimes we leave chunks to keep the trail fun and challenging.

Indeed.  But this wasn't fools gold.  I don't know what the heck it is -- probably titanium with reinforced steel -- but I'm pretty sure it would break the pry bar. They know how to pour fill dirt in my part of town.

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51 minutes ago, Dottie said:

Indeed.  But this wasn't fools gold.  I don't know what the heck it is -- probably titanium with reinforced steel -- but I'm pretty sure it would break the pry bar. They know how to pour fill dirt in my part of town.

What kind of pry bar do you have?  I doubt you would break or even bend the pry/tamping bars I have.

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...buy yourself a come along, rig up an attachment to a nearby tree or other immovable object. Throw a sling around that thing, put on your safety glasses and a hard hat, and winch that sucker out of the hole.  this is much safer than explosives, and there is less risk to your back then lifting with a pry bar.

Plan B is to just incorporate the boulder into your foundation by building your forms around it.

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Just now, Dottie said:

It's a small crowbar I have. Or use a legit pry bar with a large backhoe and a jack hammer?

Fixed it for you.  

"Use the right tool for the right job, son."

                              DadOfKzoo                  

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4 minutes ago, Dottie said:

Egad. Wrong again, dolt. You don't get access to my backyard with one of those things.

With the right equipment you can.  Grow a pair and get the right tools for the job.

Or get yourself an electric winch.  No not wench... winch.  For a couple hundred you can get one to move 5000lbs.  Or you can get a wimpy come-along like @Page Turner suggested.

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17 minutes ago, Kzoo said:

With the right equipment you can.  Grow a pair and get the right tools for the job.

Or get yourself an electric winch.  No not wench... winch.  For a couple hundred you can get one to move 5000lbs.  Or you can get a wimpy come-along like @Page Turner suggested.

 

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Ditch digging can be very hard work!

The ground around my house, which was my parents' house until I was 52 and mom passed away, is hard clay soil.  I dug the 30" deep footing required by code for a 10'x12' front porch (though we didn't get it formally inspected) and that was a chore in my 30's.  When the roots of an Indian Cigar tree damaged the sewage pipes running from the house to the connection under the street in my late 40's, I was working-full time so I hired a very-strong, out-of-work friend of my brother's at $150/day to dig the 20' long, 6' or so deep trench to the pipes and connection.  He took 5 days, using my tools, and the fairly-new, big pick he used had both sides worn down so much it had to be tossed afterward. I'm glad I didn't try to talk my brother into digging it ourselves!

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2 hours ago, Dottie said:

You can see the size of the 'other' surrounding boulders next to the cement pier in the upper right corner.

 

IMG_20190416_182720.jpg

Perhaps ( I am being nice here, of course I missed it) I missed it, but what are you buiding?  Footings for a deck?  Have to dig below frost line?  Can you just pour the footing on top of that rock?

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4 minutes ago, jsharr said:

Can you just pour the footing on top of that rock?

...that's what I would do.  No way I'd be trying to move that rock.  You're gonna get some soil settling and compaction after all that dirt gets dug and refilled anyway. No reason to make it worse. At this point, I think filling that entire hole with concrete and a custom form up top where you can see it between the decking and the soil surface is a very attractive option.

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54 minutes ago, jsharr said:

Perhaps ( I am being nice here, of course I missed it) I missed it, but what are you buiding?  Footings for a deck?  Have to dig below frost line?  Can you just pour the footing on top of that rock?

Basically it's footings for a platform to be (most likely) used for an open air shed to store firewood.  I may seat a prefab shed on this 12x12ft platform and/or put a roof on it with open air walls to allow for air circulation for firewood only.  Or a combo of the two.  I haven't decided yet.  We are using 4 concrete blocks (rows of 2 with 2 stacked on top) per hole and driving rebar through the center it and then pouring cement through the middle.  We are either filling the surrounding holes with concrete itself or just refilling with soil.  Also we are casting the top to get a level surface with the idea that some settling will occur.  While being level is important -- it's not critical. It mainly has to hold the weight -- up to 2-4 cords of dry wood and, depending on the wood, you're looking at somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 pounds. 

Product Image 1

We've got a total of 25 holes or a 100 concrete blocks.  Most of these holes are underground but some of the blocks (and pillars) on the back side of the slope are barely below ground. The picture above is a hole on the front of the slope so it's the deepest.  We've raised it high enough to keep the treated lumber considerably above the soil line and for all the rainfall to pass through. It should be around for years.

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I see your problem...... besides your inability (read blockheadedness) to use the right tools for the job.

 

You're wearing sneakers!!!!  You need work boots.  Real work boots.  Here's some from a customer of mine.  Get something like this and then get that little rock out of the hole.

image.png.fd963a9a1f61f96bb460188822c1411e.png

 

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5 minutes ago, Dottie said:

Oh Tire Boy, I have the right shoes.  That was the day after I took that.  Try to keep up.

I had to question that based on visual evidence.  The same way I question you calling those ordinary field stone boulders.

 

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