"Malcolm" wrote in message
Farm1 writes
"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message


Eh? That is a third of the effort of digging a standard grave.
It
is only shifting a tonne up by under a metre. Even I could do that
in
a day.

Well I dips me lid to you, you clearly don't spend all your time
behind a computer.

I've planted quite few apple trees over the years (both bare rooted
and potted) and a hole of that size is big. I can't imagine
digging
down another yard below the level of the roots of the tree.

There are several places in my garden where I couldn't do that
without a
pneumatic drill (or dynamite). And I don't think the drainage is
very
good in bedrock, either.....

Yes. I have very,very shallow topsoil (about 2 inches if I'm lucky)
so I know just what you mean

And what does a 3' x 2.5' slab weigh, do you suppose?

Given that I've just spent the last few days dragging quite small
rocks around to try to shore up and effectively provide damming to
trap water in a hard, hungry and scorchingly dry bed, and these stones
were only about 2 ft by 1 ft, I'd say they weigh the earth. Give me a
day or two to recover and I may revise that verdict. But I still
would need to get Himself onto such a big stone.