. I get winded cleaning out the post hole with the clam shell after the tractor has drilled the actual hole.
I always thought people had to commit murder and such to have to deal with that type of workload.
Hard rock mining tends to cause innovations like you wouldn’t believe. A superb example are the old silver mines of Mexico built by the Spanish with Indian slaves. In that case, even iron was at a premium, every bit of it imported from Spain.
This meant that most of the mining was done with wood, water, leather, animal and human labor. One such mine in a mountain radically reduced the labor needed to haul away tailings by cutting an angular, downward shaft through the mountain, like a laundry chute. But the shaft was not a rough cut, having smooth walls.
Another later innovation was amusing. Because the refined silver had to be transported a long distance from the mine, robbery was a major problem. The solution was to craft a giant ball of silver with handles, so heavy it could only be pulled by a large team of horses, the only one of which was owned by the mining company.
When the caravan transporting the silver was attacked, they would abandon the silver, and ride off with the team of horses. This left the frustrated robbers with a huge ball of silver that they couldn’t move, or cut, or do anything with, long enough for the authorities to arrive.