Be very careful, boys (and others) have been killed by collapsing sand holes. No matter how fast their friends tried to dig them out. The sand is not just cutting off your air, and filling your mouth and nose if you try to inhale, it’s also a crushing weight on your lungs, much more than avalanche snow for instance. If you want to dig a hole deeper than your chest, do it in more-solid dirt, not sand.
This boy holes
Similarly, snow piles can be dangerous. Like the kind made by machines clearing parking lots that kids love to play on. Depending on how packed it is, there could be gaps a kid could fall in and get stuck, plus kids scream when they are having fun, so many adults might just filter out the sound of child screaming.
The ones at schools might be specifically made with kids playing on them in mind, but I doubt that’s the case for ones in random parking lots, though maybe I’m just underestimating typical snow plough training.
The biggest danger with snow caves is that they absorb pretty much all sound, so you can’t hear the screaming if it eve partly collapses.
We always build our kid igloos without roofs for this reason.
Also don’t bury people even waste deep below the high tide water line. There are some frantic videos about that too if you go searching.
Oh, that’s a very good point!
A lot of beaches in Cali ban holes deeper than 2ft
The irresistible human urge to build (or dig) things together.
We’re tall, bipedal ants and I love us for that.
This tracks. I hate doing physical labor by myself, but doing it with others is satisfying.
Good way to die horribly
But at least we got to dig a hole
Just guys being dudes
Digging is also loved by dogs. Many dogs I’ve known would dig if you started digging. I wouldn’t be surprised that digging is one of those things that sets off dopamine receptors.
Probably helpful for both digging burrows and hunting burrowing animals.
Instant visible progress, obstacles but not major ones (usually), engagement to move, a way to burn energy, distraction from something bothersome…
All boys think about… Them holes…
Pretty as long as the hole is wider than it is deep they should be fine.
Digging holes builds character.
What a whacky amazing movie
Oof, unsupported walls in holes can kill you extremely fast. I’d never go into a hole deeper than my waist without shoring (even then, ehhhh).
Stay safe!
There’s something funny about how simple projects like this instantly turn into a group activity. One person starts digging and suddenly everyone wants to contribute.
It’s clear what is required. There are no blockers to contribution. It’s immediately rewarding, and progress is rapid and measurable.
Just about the opposite of any other project you might be involved in
Excellent Jacob Geller on this exact phenomenon:
His video essays are so good they make me wish supposedly “one of the best in the country” school systems that I went through didn’t condition me to loathe writing so I would have some practice and skills to write things myself.
Some bad advice here applying a “no deeper than wide” rule to beach conditions. Wet sand with shifting density won’t behave like regular earth, and a pit at the beach is going to behave differently than a trench in regular dirt. If someone said they’re going to stick you in a 6’x6’x6’ pit surrounded by unstable wet concrete and let it go with you in the middle you’d probably say this wasn’t the best safety advice.
Its also likely to just hit the water table at the beach.
One of my Spring tasks is to dig out a stump in my backyard, I’m not looking forward to it. I wonder if the neighborhood kids would be interested in helping.
Digging a big hole in the sand = fun. Digging a hike in hard root riddled dirt = $20+ an hour
Put a small fence/rope around it and call it the “IRL minecraft zone” Charge 1 dollar to rent a shovel. Once the roots are exposed go in there with a chainsaw and finish it off.
