When I was in my late teens and twenty’s, myself and other labourers used to do the majority of the hard graft on site, as we were young, fit, agile etc. The stories we used to have off the skilled workers, who were then in their forty’s, was all about how they have already done their shift as labourers in the past, and how it was always tougher and harder back in their day. What I can’t understand is how now I’m in my forty’s, I’m still finding myself doing incredibly hard graft. Today was one of those days. 7 tonnes of topsoil needed to be carried (yes carried) up the driveway, up 2 flights of steps, across the top of the garden and tipped into the raised flower beds, and today of all days, I was on my own. The method of works was very simple, fill a rubber trug with 5 shovels of soil, lift it onto my shoulder, carry it up the 26 steps, and tip it off. My target was 5 tonnes in the working day which started slightly late as the delivery arrived an hour or 2 later than anticipated. To achieve this goal I needed to ideally move each tonne, in about 1hour 15 mins.
The first tonne fell short of my 1h 15min target, but only just. 1 hour 20 mins, bit I took a short break after. I instantly decided 5 tonnes was a tall order, so then paced myself for moving just 4 tonnes on day 1. With heavy work like this I always find it important to set myself to some kind of pace. It’s very easy to push yourself too hard early on, and start tiring towards the end of the day, and slowing. A steady work pace is always more efficient over a full day. 1 o’clock hit and I had moved 2 1/2 of the bags, so the goal was on target.
Having lunch was both a blessing and a curse. My legs and back seized right up. The last 1.5 bags got done, but that was after suffering major cramps on both legs and back. The pile of bags on the drive is now looking much more manageable for tomorrow. Unfortunately for some stupid reason I didn’t take pictures of the beds filling at the top of the garden. But I did take a picture of my health app. 20,000 steps and enough flights of stairs to get to the top of the Empire State Building, and then 20 more. All with a trug of soil on my shoulder.
Not an exciting post today, but an insight into how some of the hard can be as a landscape gardener. 4 tonnes is the same weight as 5 small hatchback cars. That always sounds quite impressive when worded like that.
Any questions feel free to ask. Thank you for the interest.