> I went down with them, to supervise, but was quickly roped into the heavy lifting.

If you ever find yourself in a situation like this, politely bow out. As I suspect the author would advise.

It's an easy -- even likely -- way for someone to get an adversely life-changing injury.

Besides the good writing, it was easy to visualize that playing out, because I've seen it before.

Also, don't let anyone do a risky thing like this on your property, unless you know they're both capable professionals, and that they have sufficient insurance covering anything that could plausibly go very bad.