"Pete C." wrote in message
...

Jim Elbrecht wrote:

"Ivan Vegvary" wrote:

-snip-
eight 27 gallon plastic totes.

-snip-
My biggest
problem, due to age, is getting the totes out from under the house and
not
the digging.

What? You can't throw 27 gallons of dirt around? BG I hope you
meant 27 quarts- or I'm feeling even whimpier than when I started
going for 3 gallons instead of 5. [though I'm carrying mine up a
flight of stairs- of course that's 3 gallons in each hand.g]

-snip-
After about
10 round trips I remove all the excess dumpings with my Kubota and lose
it
on my 4± acres.

Those little machines are handy. I had my brother-in-law's Kubota for
a few weeks a couple years ago. Sure speeds up the process.

While my dirt (bottom 2 feet) is quite stiff, I stopped using the Bosch
hammer. Taking a horizontal slice against a vertical bank (the slice
is
only about 2 inches deep) while sitting down, is very easy. You would
be
surprised how much force you can exert with a sharp spade, push of the
foot
and a little wiggling.

*Sharp* spade is a good point. I've got a great little short handled
landscaping spade that is serrated, even. Though it doesn't help
much in my clay. You can peel about 1/4 inch off- but any more and it
is spade bit time. [till I get to the wet spots- but that's a whole
nother headache.]

Jim

The vacuum excavators I noted in my other post would make the process
much faster and easier. Just put the suction hose where you want to dig
and start jabbing that area with the air lance. After sucking out some
500 gal of dirt, take a break to dump the vacuum container and then go
at it again.

I've used my shop vac to clean out trenches for water pipe, and to remove
the loose soil at the bottom of an augered hole. Works quite well.