Used to prefer dried beans until a ruined pot changed my mind for good.

That old beep code system created a shared language for troubleshooters. You could walk into a room and immediately know what another person was working on just by listening. We gained clarity with displays but lost that bit of communal diagnostic vibe.

Yeah, that spongy layer over hardpan is exactly what got me last spring. I was digging a drainage ditch and the top seemed firm, but once I broke through, it was pure soup underneath. What worked for me was using wide planks under the tracks to spread the weight out. I had a friend bring over his skid steer to help pull, but we still needed those boards to keep from sinking further. Took us a good three hours to get it free, and we learned to test dig with a shovel first in suspect areas.