[TowerTalk] New Tower

[N4CW@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/1/99 4:08:38 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
jesser38@chorus.net writes:

<< how to dig a 3x3x4 foot hole.  Post hole digger?? >>

A lot depends on what you're digging into. The easiest is to get somebody 
with a backhoe...costs vary, but I recently had a hole dug in Maine for $55. 
Just a shovel will suffice if you've digging into sand or loam (like I had 
along the Merrimac River in Lowell, MA), and it'll take you a couple hours at 
best. If you try to dig in clay, like we have here in NC, a pick and shovel 
will probably get you about a foot or two deep; then you find that you don't 
have enough room in a 3' X 3' hole to adequately swing the pick--a shovel's 
useless....a post hole digger is good at that point....unless you hit 
rocks...whereupon, you learn to use a "digging bar", essentially a six-foot 
iron bar with a hardened chisel at one end. It'll take quite a while to dig 
in clay, I can attest to that. If you have to dig through "hard pan" or rock, 
forget doing it manually---get a contractor to do it. If you hit ledge, 
consider another location for the hole!!!
Good luck, and buy a good pair of Wells Lamont leather gloves.
Bert, N4CW

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