You know you have a really good friend when you propose that they spend a crisp autumn day with you on the other side of a two-man auger...and they actually show up to do it.
In the fall of 2002, we were preparing for the arrival and planting of our baby vines the following spring which meant we needed to get a fence around the vineyard and trellis posts in place. My husband-to-be called his friends John and Tom for help. We figured we needed to augur holes for four corner fence posts and ten trellis posts, one at each end of a row.
I don't know if you've ever seen a two man auger but it is basically a solid steel corkscrew as big as a man with a motor attached and two inadequate handles. You can see it in the picture between the guy with the red and white shirt and the guy with the white shirt. You start it like a push mower and this insanely heavy blade begins revolving rather briskly while those roped into using it gamely try to hang on and maneuver it in a downward motion with their arms held awkwardly at right angles to the body. When you are digging a deep enough hole, the operators actually end up kneeling on either side of this machine as it spins in the earth hitting rocks and tearing apart back muscles. To this day, I don't think my husband can comfortably lower his arms to his sides.
He has incredible friends who actually remained enthusiastic about the vineyard after that day.
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