It's a question that's been bugging me for a few years. 'Cuz that's how long I've owned my house.
It seems to me that the original builders of this house (around 1999) must have had to bring in a really large amount of fill to get it high enough to build on. And, like most decisions made regarding cost, they probably went with the absolute cheapest thing possible if it didn't impact their lives. Kudos to them for that, they were very practical. Or maybe this is just the natural soil in the area. But if that's the case I have no idea how the 60 acre field behind me can grow corn. Whatever.
Basically, you get 3" down in my yard and you hit clay. Took me 30 minutes (at least) to dig a 20" deep 12" wide hole today with a shovel.
When I dropped a bunch of trees in my front yard I got a tractor out here with a 150lb-ish post hole digger hooked up to the PTO for the job. In some areas I had to have my 200lb brother stand on the thing and bounce up and down to get a foot into the ground.
Any ideas? One of my brothers suggested a pick-ax to break the stuff up before digging. Perhaps not a bad idea.
Is there anything I can do to soften this stuff up? Like maybe drop 100lbs of earthworms on the yard and let them do their thing for a couple of years? I'm not looking forward to this every time I want to stick something in my yard.