The best way to dig a ditch...

Have any of you had to do a hard labor-intensive task before and thought to yourself, "Self, there has got to be an easier way to do this?" Well, here on our little plot of real estate that we call home, we were helping out the electricians dig a trench to bury a new power supply line. The problem is that the surface is covered in gravel and underneath that the dirt is really hard. They even hooked up a backhoe to the Bobcat, but the hydraulics went out and we were back to shovels. So, here is what we did to "soften" up the dirt and make it easier to dig in...