Filling a grave?

[Alpo]

I know back in the olden days when they needed a grave they would get the pick and shovel and dig a hole, and then once the coffin was in the hole they would take the shovel and fill it back up with the dirt.

I kind of doubt they do that nowadays. I suspect they dig the hole with a backhoe. Then they lower in the concrete vault. Once the coffin has been lowered, and the mourners have gone away, I'm guessing they come back over with the backhoe and use it to set the top on the vault.

How do they get the dirt back in the hole? Shovel? A bobcat with a bulldozer blade?

Ain't it amazing the weird stuff I come up with?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pat Riot]

I am sure they use a backhoe or a front loader. When my Mom was buried the dirt removed was piled on a green canvas tarp (a lovely green canvas tarp) and then covered with another tarp. 
After she was buried as I was leaving the funeral home office I saw the workers using a small front loading Bobcat to put dirt in the grave. 
 

Here’s a cool machine. I guess it probably has a “fill line” in the bucket. 

 

[Ozark Huckleberry]

(Former) S-I-L works in a national cemetery.

 

The dirt is lifted out onto a UTV-sized dump vehicle. After the service, it comes back and pours it back in. 

Ah— Pat posted just ahead of me. 

[Alpo]

So they don't pile it next to the grave and put AstroTurf over it anymore? Last funeral I was at was my mother's, in '08, and I don't believe I was paying a whole lot of attention to what they were doing.

[largo casey #19191]

At my Mothers funeral they used a mini backhoe.BUT after the soil was put back in a person fire up a ground pounder (tamper) & started compressing the soil.This was before anybody had left.

                                                                                      Largo

[Singin' Sue 71615]

We still say our "goodbyes" with a shovel.

Everyone grabs a scoop and passes the shovel to the next in line.

[Michigan Slim]

10 minutes ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

We still say our "goodbyes" with a shovel.

Everyone grabs a scoop and passes the shovel to the next in line.

I've never said goodbye. I say 'see you soon'.

[Singin' Sue 71615]

Just now, Michigan Slim said:

I've never said goodbye. I say 'see you soon'.

Yes sir!!!

God's promise!

[Happy Jack, SASS #20451]

I haven't been to a funeral or cemetery since high school.. My girlfriend's home burned down and she was in it. Not to my brother, mother, father, or anyone else. No children so no reason to ever go to one. CQ and I have decided no services for us either, just a quick cremation and hope someone we know will spread the ashes on a mountain somewhere.

[Waxahachie Kid #17017 L]

A friend of mine died of covid early last year. 

We had to a graveside service, and we had to stay in our cars (in my case Jeep) and watch. 

They had used a backhoe to dig the grave. The concrete vault was lowered into the hole by a chain wrapped around the backhoe's shovel.

The coffin was suspended over the grave, as per the usual funeral home method, by their apparatus.  

They lowered the coffin into the grave, and used the backhoe/chain to put the lid on the vault.

The backhoe then shoveled the mound of dirt, that was next to the grave, into the hole, and when the last shovel-full of dirt was put on the grave, the backhoe operator tamped down the dirt, with the back/flat side of the backhoe shovel, until it was pretty well compacted, and mostly flat. 

The backhoe operator was very skillful, with the shovel. I was impressed.

A few of the workers then used hand shovels, to do a little clean up work, but the backhoe did 99.999% of the work.

Like as not, this is just one way to do this. It may depend on several factors as to how other methods are used.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

As long as they aren't filling the grave with me I could care less.

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

11 minutes ago, Michigan Slim said:

I've never said goodbye. I say 'see you soon'.

 

I'll say something along the lines of "until we meet again," or some such.  Wouldn't tempt the fates with "see you soon!"  A good friend's mom's last words to her husband were "I'll see you in the springtime."  He really fretted 'til late June.  

 

At my Uncle Joe's gravesite, the grounds workers were standing by with a backhoe.  When the last words were said, the workers waited for us to clear out so they could get on with it, but no one moved.  Until I walked over and grabbed a shovel.  Other family members joined me, and there was nothing left for the workers to do but fold chairs and minor cleanup.  We even replaced the sod.

 

As an aside, Uncle Joe'd been taken out by a drunk driver while checking a tire on his semi trailer.  His tractor, clean and sparkling with fresh wax, was parked by the gravesite on the hillside cemetery.  While we worked, there was a cacophony of air horn salutes from the truckers on the freeway below.

 

                      

                        

 

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

8 hours ago, Alpo said:

Ain't it amazing the weird stuff I come up with?

Not any more.

[Alpo]

You mean you have gotten used to me?

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

1 hour ago, Alpo said:

You mean you have gotten used to me?

Let's just say that you haven't come up with anything very surprising lately.

[Alpo]

Okay. How's this?

 

You're a big city, with many different police districts or precincts.

 

Someone commits a crime in precinct one, and the crime is given to detective Smith to solve. Then our criminal commits another crime, but he did this one in precinct 3. Is it still detective Smith's crime? Or since it is no longer a precinct one crime, "no that ain't my jurisdiction", they give it to inspector Jones in precinct 3, so you now have two detectives in two different precincts trying to catch the same criminal?

 

I live in a small town, so burglary is burglary. But New York, or Los Angeles? Big towns.

[DeaconKC]

Despite what TV shows, most LE are glad to work together.

[Solomon Kane 18264]

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

12 hours ago, Alpo said:

I know back in the olden days when they needed a grave they would get the pick and shovel and dig a hole, and then once the coffin was in the hole they would take the shovel and fill it back up with the dirt.

I kind of doubt they do that nowadays. I suspect they dig the hole with a backhoe. Then they lower in the concrete vault. Once the coffin has been lowered, and the mourners have gone away, I'm guessing they come back over with the backhoe and use it to set the top on the vault.

How do they get the dirt back in the hole? Shovel? A bobcat with a bulldozer blade?

Ain't it amazing the weird stuff I come up with?

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Clyde, sometimes I think you're not too tightly wrapped."

Philo Beddo

 

[sassnetguy50]

12 hours ago, Alpo said:

So they don't pile it next to the grave and put AstroTurf over it anymore? Last funeral I was at was my mother's, in '08, and I don't believe I was paying a whole lot of attention to what they were doing.

That is how 2 of the funeral homes do it here.

[Amigo]

One of my summer jobs during college was working in a cemetery. Mostly cutting grass, trimming around the headstones, but we did dig graves. As previously mentioned, it was primarily done with a  backhoe and the pile of dirt next to to the grave was covered with astroturf. On one particularly slow week, late in the summer when the grass was growing more slowly, I dug most of one by hand. Whether doing it by hand or with the backhoe, we went down to the length of our long handled shovels...we did not put anyone "six feet under." Was more like 5 to 5 1/2 feet. After the services, we waited until most people had departed, but there were always a few that were hanging out in the distance, waiting for us to put the dirt back in the hole. When we did that, that pretty much was an automatic turn-on-the-tears for those that remained. I could certainly understand that at the time and still do, now. We never tamped the dirt down...there ended up being a large pile of dirt on the top of the grave, which now held the vault. We let it sit that way for several days and then would go out to "sink the grave." When ol' Herm took me out to do the first one, I had no idea what he meant by those words. Well, we dragged a hose out and stuck it into the base of that dirt pile and turned the hose on and just let it run. 10 or 15 or 20 minutes later, the dirt would all collapse down and end up settling flat with the rest of the ground. Darndest thing I ever saw. Happened that way every time. That big vault was still down there, we hadn't hauled any of the dirt away...but it all settled even.

[Warden Callaway]

Many years ago I watched something on TV that showed a very old black man digging graves by hand.  It had been his profession all his life.  When he got the grave dug to depth, it was deeper than he was tall.  I was expecting a latter to be lowered to him but no,  he stood the short shovel in a corner and planted the pick in the sod at the top.  Pulling on the pick handle he climbed up the short shovel and got out of the hole.  Once out,  he took the pick and retrieved the shovel. 

[Utah Bob #35998]

Concrete vault???.

[Cholla]

10 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

Concrete vault???.

These days, most of not all places require a concrete vault to place the coffin in. I think the reason is to keep the ground from sinking in when the coffin rusts/rots away. 

[Eyesa Horg]

There are some in this neck of the woods that want to go back to "green burials" with no vault or preservation.

[Utah Bob #35998]

4 hours ago, Cholla said:

These days, most of not all places require a concrete vault to place the coffin in. I think the reason is to keep the ground from sinking in when the coffin rusts/rots away. 

Okay. That’s not done here. I imagine that would increase the funeral cost considerably

[Singin' Sue 71615]

2 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

Okay. That’s not done here. I imagine that would increase the funeral cost considerably

It isn't required for our plots either. And digging/covering by shovel doesn't cost anything either. Great living in the country, ain't it?

[Amigo]

12 hours ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

It isn't required for our plots either. And digging/covering by shovel doesn't cost anything either. Great living in the country, ain't it?

My youngest brother has said to just put him into the dumpster behind his post office...he says you can put anything in there...nobody cares.

[Singin' Sue 71615]

5 hours ago, Amigo said:

My youngest brother has said to just put him into the dumpster behind his post office...he says you can put anything in there...nobody cares.

My dad always said if he lost his abilities to think for himself, to drive him to the top of the mountain and let the bears have him.

Funny how we can joke when we have no fear of dying.

[DeaconKC]

8 hours ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

My dad always said if he lost his abilities to think for himself, to drive him to the top of the mountain and let the bears have him.

Funny how we can joke when we have no fear of dying.

Just for you!

[Amigo]

10 hours ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

My dad always said if he lost his abilities to think for himself, to drive him to the top of the mountain and let the bears have him.

Funny how we can joke when we have no fear of dying.

Great observation of the majority of us, but there are a few that fall outside the box. I met a woman last year. My wife was caring for her in her last several months of her life and she was in her late 80s. She was clear of mind and had no fear of death. She talked of her thankfulness for the life the good Lord had given her over the years, she chastised people around her that they better not worry when her time came to move on and she had an extremely sharp  wit and wry sense of humor. It was a blessing to me to have met this woman and spent some time with her near the end of her life and listening and speaking to those who knew her for much longer than I did...well, she had that same effect on many others throughout her life.