+1 for their vacuum insulated water boilers.

Dewitt D20 diamond shape scuffle hoe with the 72" pistol grip handle. If you keep the blade nice and sharp it makes controlling weeds and prepping planting areas so much easier. It slices parralllel to the soil surface so you can cut weeds at the root without a lot of effort, and it’s one of the only tools I’ve found that can break up dense mats of vines.

Bucket style towel warmer. No specific brand recommendation here. I got mine from the Aldi aisle of shame. You just throw your towel in before getting in the shower and 10 minutes later it’s nice and warm like it just came out of the dryer.

This story sounds familiar. Allow me to offer a couple suggestions.

Water the ground about a half hour before you need to dig. Use plenty of water but don’t make it muddy.

Sharpen the edge of your shovels with a file or grindstone. It makes a world of difference for reducing the effort it takes to cut through even small roots.

Get a mattock and a long handle ice chopper for large roots. Keep those tools sharp as well.

I broke two wood handled shovels within 3 weeks of buying my first house that had heavy clay soils. I also resorted to buying the metal handled kobalt shovel. These days I’m back to mostly using a wood shovel with these tips and only break out the metal handled shovel for really demanding work. The wood handled shovel is much lighter and therefore less fatigueing to use.