This Weekend...

[Kraven]

I start digging! Gotta set up the 6 footer before the frost hits. Renting an auger is too expensive so am doing it the ol' fashion way.

Cheers, K

When this this is finally installed, I'll feel like I lost a 300lbs gorilla off my back

 

[toucan-man]

Dug a hole last week, the old fashioned way. After the first foot, it went surprisingly fast to 48". Post hole digger is a remarkable hand tool.

 

[Mr Tony]

Have fun
I'll be watching 3 college football games on FTA at the same time
(lucked out as one game I know is on 85W and then got coordinates for the other and its on 85 too....3rd game is on different sat but with only 2 dishes I was hoping 2 games would be on same sat)

 

[turbosat]

I'm acquainted with those wonderful hole diggers, but I envy anybody who could dig a 48" hole with one (around here). I'm lucky if I can get to 4-5" before hitting rock. Usuallly I win, with a railroad bar, rock chisel and various hammers but it usually is an exhausting ordeal to get a hole in here. Once it's there, though, it usually lasts, don't have to worry about it loosening up.

 

[toucan-man]

Sandy soil has it's privileges.

 

[KC9TIK]

Indiana clay has the best of both worlds: soft enough to dig through without special tools, but hard enough to keep things in place.

 

[Blindowl1234]

Put a pole in awful ohio clay this week 40" deep. Winter everything is mush. Summer hard as concrete. In the winter I have got the truck stuck more than once in the yard.

 

[primestar31]

Sandy soil has it's privileges.

Yup, I have soft sandy loam soil also. I can dig a 4 foot deep hole in around 10 minutes or so with a post hole digger. The only thing that bothers me (slows me down), is tree roots that can be real nasty and actually have to be cut out of the hole with a saw. I make the bottoms bell-shaped, place a load (80lb bag) of gravel in the bottom of them for drainage, and then place a flat cement patio-paver on top of the leveled gravel to put the pole on, and keep the pole from sinking while the cement is hardening. I use a LOT of cement (800lbs for my c-band dish)

I don't believe in having to re-do it, so I get it right in the first place!