Air-Powered Shovel Digs Trenches In Hard Ground
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“I had a big problem with skunks getting under my double wide and needed to do something to get rid of them,” says retired farmer Russell Hackman of Texas. “I figured the best way to keep them out was to bury a fence in the ground and connect it to the underside of the trailer. That way they’d get discouraged, give up and go away.”
The ground was too hard to trench by hand, so Hackman built a small air-powered shovel to handle the job out of a flat piece of 3-in. channel iron that he curved in a duckbill shape. He welded a piece of rebar to one end and fastened it to an air hammer.
Hackman used his invention to dig a trench about 8 in. deep around the outside of his trailer. Then he cut welded wire mesh in pieces about 24 in. long to reach from the bottom of the trench to the underside of his trailer. He connected the mesh to the underskirt with hog rings. With the mesh sucurely in place he re-filled the trench and had a secure fence to keep out any type of burrowing critters.
“It’s been very dry around here so the ground is very hard and impossible to dig with a shovel or a grubbing hoe,” says Hackman, “but the duckbill shovel I built worked real well. When I got the fence in place I left a small space open and sat back to make sure the skunks were out from underneath the trailer,” Hackman says. “Sure enough, two of them came out, and my 20 ga. took care of them both before they could get back underneath. I closed up the opening and the buried fence has kept out anything else that’s tried to get in.”
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Russell Hackman, P.O. Box 1084, 2523 FM 884, Yorktown, Texas 78164 (ph 361 564-8855).
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Air-Powered Shovel Digs Trenches In Hard Ground MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Earth Movers “I had a big problem with skunks getting under my double wide and needed to do something to get rid of them ” says retired farmer Russell Hackman of Texas “I figured the best way to keep them out was to bury a fence in the ground and connect it to the underside of the trailer That way they’d get discouraged give up and go away ” The ground was too hard to trench by hand so Hackman built a small air-powered shovel to handle the job out of a flat piece of 3-in channel iron that he curved in a duckbill shape He welded a piece of rebar to one end and fastened it to an air hammer Hackman used his invention to dig a trench about 8 in deep around the outside of his trailer Then he cut welded wire mesh in pieces about 24 in long to reach from the bottom of the trench to the underside of his trailer He connected the mesh to the underskirt with hog rings With the mesh sucurely in place he re-filled the trench and had a secure fence to keep out any type of burrowing critters “It’s been very dry around here so the ground is very hard and impossible to dig with a shovel or a grubbing hoe ” says Hackman “but the duckbill shovel I built worked real well When I got the fence in place I left a small space open and sat back to make sure the skunks were out from underneath the trailer ” Hackman says “Sure enough two of them came out and my 20 ga took care of them both before they could get back underneath I closed up the opening and the buried fence has kept out anything else that’s tried to get in ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Russell Hackman P O Box 1084 2523 FM 884 Yorktown Texas 78164 ph 361 564-8855
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