I remember when we used to dig post holes by hand, not with a skid steer

Back in '04, my first fence job was for a horse farm outside Lexington. We dug every single hole with a clamshell digger. Took three of us two full days to set 40 posts. Now I can do that in a morning with the auger attachment on my Bobcat. Sure saves the back, but something about the old way felt more solid. Any of you old timers still hand dig for certain jobs, or am I just being nostalgic?

3 comments

3 Comments

umar491mo ago

You ever hand dig a post hole in rocky ground and hit a ledge three feet down? I've walked away from more than one job where the skid steer couldn't get close enough to the fence line and we had to break out the digging bar anyway. What's your cutoff - at what point do you say screw it and call for the machine?

aaron7401mo ago

Yeah hitting a ledge at 3 feet is brutal. @umar49 I'm with you on walking away sometimes. For me it's once I'm sweating and the bar just bounces off the rock without budging, that's my cutoff. Hand digging through that is a waste of a day when you could just bring in a mini excavator or a towable auger.

susan_adams1mo ago

Three feet down on a ledge? That's crazy.