Rick wrote:

Someone said something about an electric hammer and that I could drive
the rod into the ground in "minutes". If I go to try to rent one of those,
what should I be looking for?

Rental yards call them "demolition hammers"... available in various forms
(electric, pneumatic, etc) and sizes (45#, 60#, 90#, etc).

Also, when I bought the ground rods the guy at the electrical shop showed
me something called a Sluggo-Ox (www.sluggo-ox.com), touted as "the
ultimate ground rod driving tool". It's not much more than a heavy block
of tempered steel with a hole in one end that you place over the rod, and
a LARGE head on the other end that you hit with your hammer. It claims to
makes it easier to actually hit the end of the rod (which I am doing only
about 60 percent of the time when I swing the sledgehammer). It also
costs $120 (!!), at least that's what this place charges for it. I'm
almost ready to go get one if it will help. Well, maybe not quite "almost"
ready... ;-)

Perhaps your local rental yard has something like this for rent -- the
general term would be "slide-hammer".

Anything else that will make the job a little easier? I gave up for the
day after about an hour and a half (it started raining so I figured that
was as good an excuse as I needed...)... figured on starting in again on
Sunday (tomorrow is booked...).

Saturating the ground may help a little (or a lot). I've used the garden
hose left on a trickle with the end of the hose against the ground rod.

Bryan WA7PRC