In praise of Coal Men

[beanzontoast]

Back in the 60's and early 70's when we had a coal fire, we lived on top of a hill with a winding path to the house. The coal men carried sack after sack of coal up that path and along to our coal shed. I was still at primary school and the coal men all seemed oldish guys, but I suspect it was the job, their bent backs and slow, lumbering movements up the hill that made them seem that way to me.

One of my 'chores' was to fill the coal scuttle each night - I could barely carry it with two hands when it was full - so I got a good idea at an early age of how heavy those sacks must have been.

 

[Globalti]

We still do that every day now but the sacks only weigh 20 kilos!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I worked for a builders merchant years ago, pre tiny bags of cement, I can remember three of us unloading a lorry load of hundred weight bags of cement by hand once when the fork-lift broke down. Not sure how many tons I lifted that day but it was a lot. 3 x 2' 2" slabs were a killer too and MDF - I don't know how much a 8 x 4' 1" sheet of MDF weighs but it's a lot.

A fair bit is down to technique as well, when my dad had some work done me and my brother were carrying the cement bags down the garden. I was used to them and just slung a 1 cwt bag on my shoulder but when I helped my brother (college wallah) get a bag onto his shoulder he just fell over backwards into a big heap.

Also, when I was at school I had a part-time job helping in a bakery and the bags of flour were 1 cwt IIRC, however they were bloody massive and stacking those into pile in the store room was a real killer ... gasp!

Barely lift a finger these days ...

 

[asterix]

First things I bought doing my barn conversion

Chain Hoist (people keep borrowing it)
Wheel barrow (now have 4)
Heavy duty sack barrow (brilliant for moving boulders, people keep borrowing it)
Winch
Long crow bar (over 2m)

Later a plaster-board lifter (French boards are 2.4 m x 1.2 m and only recently have 10mm thicknesses become available)

Would've bought a crane and fork lift but the money ran out (and people would keep borrowing them)

I am also very good at using ropes and slings (from sailing days).

(One of my first jobs was with Goblin, shifting those Teasmades was a doddle)