Setting poles

We spent all day today setting poles by hand. I've done it a few times over the years, but not that often.  These guys think nothing of it. Also even when we had to set the poles by hand, we had trucks to put them on and off the pole trailer.  Very different doing absolutely everything by hand. Also because the digger has to get down in the hole to clean it out, they dig the holes so big around. A lot more dirt to backfill and to tamp. I am kind of getting the impression that these guys think I'm a little long in the tooth for this kind of work. They keep calling me this name, which they tell me is for respect to older people. I sure hope that's what it means. Anyway, I can hardly touch the tamp before one of them takes it away from me. The first picture is of me getting ready to haul out a couple of poles. The next is of me putting a pike in a pole. The next is of all of us lifting the pole to set it on the deadman. The last is of my gloves--the cresoate is so thick and sticky in this heat that it gets on everything. A real mess.