Posted by JD Seller on March 30, 2013 at 20:08:49 from (208.126.196.144):
My sons and I dug my nephew's grave today. It is so wet in the family cemetery that we dug the grave by hand. Any machinery would have torn the grass/ground up too much today.
It is supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow so we dug it today. That way the dirt and hole can be covered to keep it a little more dry. We also tarped off a large section of the ground around the grave site. Monday morning early I have a large load of landscape wood chips coming in. We will make paths to the grave site and cover an area around the grave where the grave side services will be held. This way people in their dress shoes can walk to the grave without getting muddy. We can rake the chips back up later and use them around the trees. Also have gravel lined up too. The place will look as good as we can make it for Tuesday's funeral.
We dug down about the first foot and then we hit frozen ground. I knew we would so we spread 15 bags of charcoal in the hole. We lite it and covered the top with some used steel roofing. We let it burn out, about three hours. Then we dipped the ashes out. The ground was easy to dig then. At three feet we hit hard dry dirt. Had to use a pick to break it loose enough to dig out. Without my sons' help I would have been hard pressed to have gotten it done today. Final hole is 8 1/2 feet long and 4 feet wide by six foot deep. Concrete burial vaults take this much room.
I have been involved in digging many graves over the years. This is only the fourth I have dug by hand. My first wife's was the first one I hand dug. I did that one by myself. I had a lot of anger to work off and it helped. Anger does not go as far today as it used to. Not sure if I am more even tempered or what??? LOL Just an old codger more than likely.
I took my Sister-in-Law to the New Malleray Abbey for my nephew's casket, earlier this morning. My brother just could not do it. I hope he can hold it together for the services. The Tappist Monks there make beautiful caskets at a reasonable price. They where more than helpful. They where going to give the casket to my SIL. They have a program of donating them for children. I got the lead Monk aside and told him that was not necessary in this case. We could easily pay for the casket. The monk that was helping my SIL chose what she wanted had tears in his eyes when we left. They are good people!!!!
IF you think you ever would be interested in their product here is their web site. I have donated to the children's fund they have for years. It is good cause!!!
So we had a busy day. It was a hard one in ways but it was a family bonding one too. My younger sons had never helped do anything like this. So they got to learn. They will be leading the crew doing it some day. Time catchs us all at some point.
Hope this does not bum out some of you but it is what I did today. Some may never have thought about a grave being anything other than something you BUY. I guess us simple folk have different ways. This place looks over the ground we have made our living from since the early 1840s. It is a comfort knowing where my final resting place will be. Sounds crazy but it does give me some peace.
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