There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I have found the bottom of the hole. Am now more or less filling it back up. I say "more or less" because the bulk of the stuff taken from the hole was not dirt but debris. It's not going back in there, so the level of the ground is a good two feet lower than the surrounding area. There is definitely more less than more. It's still a hole. I don't know what I'm going to end up doing about that. I'm muddy, and sore, and I still have more excavating to do, and you could easily have buried a few people in that hole if you didn't mind that they were only going to be three feet deep (two feet now), but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

(Tunnel is the right word. I was starting to think I'd end up in China!)