You think that's bad? Try hauling ten cubic yards of sand. Wet sand. I'll never do that again.

Did that (more than that) with mulch. What a way to spend a day! The older I get, the more I dislike the heavy labor of gardening.

Hmmm.... didn't mean to sound so negative! I bet you have a good feeling about what you've done, and your plants will thank you. :-)

Jen

I once -slowly- moved and spread 12 yds. of shredded bark... never again!

Jenn: There are days when I know exactly what you mean -- today is one of them.

Westelle - Sadly, I never thought I'd feel this way. It's like having a house full of toddlers who never grow out of diapers.

Jenn: you moved ten cubic yards of mulch in a day?!? Impressive!

Westelle: did you do all twelve yards in a day?

lilydude: I definitely wouldn't want to have to haul that much wet sand.

I agree that my plants will be happy, hopefully the weeds will be fewer and the watering will be less...it really is worth it, I just didn't realize the actual volume I'd be working with until the chips were delivered. Perhaps it's more than 10 cubic yards...who knows. The pile was about 5 feet high at the tallest point and 10-15 feet wide.

Melle, we moved it from the front yard (where it was dumped) to the side yard where it sat as we gradually used it up. Much of it was used to start a new lawn. So we didn't spread it all in one day, LOL! Guess I should have clarified that. Oh my gosh -- the pain of that! I can't even imagine. 8-O

How did we move it? We filled a wheelbarrow and also one of those large plastic (Rubbermaid??) trash cans on wheels, then made a bazillion trips to the side yard (UP the sloped driveway) to dump them.

My next home will have a teeny tiny postage-stamp-size yard.

Jen

melle: Heavens no! It took weeks to move that much mulch. As I did an area I'd bring in the mulch. We got real tired of looking at that huge pile every time we came up the drive.

For the last 3 years, I had to haul 20 cubic yards of topsoil into my backyard every summer. Last year, the pile of dirt was sitting in my front yard for more than 6 months while I was hauling it in little by little. This year, I'm not getting any :-)

chaud111: were you building a hill in your backyard ;-)

It does sound like I was building a hill, doesn't it.
I have a large backyard. After puring concrete for a patio area (16x100), I needed to fill the non-concrete area (50x100) with 4 inches of dirt so that we could walk on it during raining season without getting mud onto yourself. I think I still need more topsoil. Also, I have a hill area on the side of the house, where I built a retaining wall, and I needed some soil there as well. It's a lot of work, and I'm taking a break this year

We just finished spreading about 60 cubic yards of them.

I'm an arborist, but not a climber with a chipper. I use a trailer.

But the utility line clearing company dumped many truckloads for me this last winter.

You are right - nice cool season project.

Two poor guys on a tract home stucco gun crew will shovel 10 yards of damp sand each day. The gun mixes the stucco and pumps it through a hose, and combines it with compressed air to spray it on the house.

They back the gun up to the mountain of sand with pallets of cement nearby. The two guys (usually Mexicans) will shovel 20 shovels of sand into the hopper, and then one of the guys will lift a 94 lb. sack of cement chest-high and dump it into the hopper. They will shovel 20 more shovels of sand, and then the other guy will load the cement. The water is added automatically. This is their whole day- the gun engine is noisy, hot, and stinks like exhaust. The cement is alkali, and they are clothed head to toe to protect themselves from it. When they're done with that mountain, there's always another one a few houses down to do. The only thing they get to look forward to it when it's the other guy's turn to load the sack of cement.

We use them as an example of why kids should stay in school...

Well, thinking of school, training and even administration - this reminds me of working for the City of Portland golf courses. The head administrator over all the superintendants had a fairly nice paycheck, and the work was office work. He had good "ties" in the industry, as his dad was over the links down south like Pebble Beach golf course.

When we had 1000 cubic yards - yes, ONE THOUSAND - of white sand to shovel. He came to the golf course and participated with the 5 men shoveling and spreading that white sand for about 3 weeks straight. There was no need for him to do this. He was not a golf course superintendant or a greenskeeper.

In our industry, we consider that an example.

I've had full dump truck loads (they're about 30-40 cubic yards) left in my driveway on 3 occasions over the last 5 years. I had to move them myself and usually could do it over a weekend. I use a very large, light plastic wheelbarrow and a very large, lightweight plastic shovel (looks like a snow shovel.) The big lightweight shovel makes it easy -- could not do it w/ a standard shovel or heavy wheelbarrow.

On one occasion, I rammed a big sliver of wood through my leg by walking too close to an unfinished raised garden bed while hauling the wheelbarrow full of compost (the sliver looked like a pencil and went in the front of my leg, out the back.) I drove to the doc-in-the-box to have it what I couldn't pull out myself (ouch), removed. The doc got a new ultra sound machine and decided to use it on my leg to look for remaining sliver bits. He also gave me a picture of my "baby" embedded in my leg :)

However, that's nothing compared to my neighbor who did the same thing except with gravel! And, he considered renting a bobcat, but decided to use a shovel and wheelbarrow instead so as not to crush his sideyard. We nicknamed him "The Machine" -- one hard working & tough guy!

I would never try to move gravel -- that'd be a back breaker for sure. Am certain I could find a couple of high school football players who need some extra cash to do that kind of thing for me!

:) Celestial

I just finished a 8x8 concrete pad for a new water tank up in my woods. Mixing from bags of concrete mix 15 eighty pound bags and 30 sixty pounds bags. I will NEVER buy another eighty pounder! Of course the whole job would have easier if I had done it when I was sixty eight instead of seventy eight! Now all I have to do is move a 2500 gallon tank through the woods to the pad and hand dig a trench for the pipes from the well. Sometimes living in town does not look too bad, even with neighbors to deal with. Al

Ugh! Reading all these posts just makes me hurt! I'm redoing my vegetable garden behind my garage, and I'll be doing the compost-pile thing soon. You've all reminded me how much "fun" it was.

But, melle sacto, it must've been satisfying to look your yard over while taking those aspirin with a big glass of water. :)