So I was watching this new series on Fox.  Think it was Fox. Anyways, it is called DollHouse.    A show about mindless, programmable humans that can be geared to do anything that is imaginable for a price.  So while watching the show I heard the phrase, 'keep on'e shoulder to the wheel' nd hadn't really heard it before.  So felt i should look it up and see what it was all about.  One of the definition says 'work doggedly or persistently', or basically to keep on working hard.  It did fit for the context by which it was used in the movie.    As she was getting hunted down and kept plugging away to stay alive.

Some other similair phrases or terms were 'keep one's nose to the grindstone', 'plug away', and 'slog' . 

 Then, there was that word 'slog'.  Another term i'd never heard before. So while talking with a friend, who happens to live in england, mentioned this to him  and he went on to give me his version of the definition in his context.  One example I found   'an 18-hour slog in the hay fields'.

So this just goes to show my vocabulary sucks.