OK!!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif The Boomer is out /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Thanks to everyone who posted help here. Unfortunately, my Boomer was in a place that was 50' to the nearest "dry" spot and on a pretty good slope so any type of vehicle would have done more damage than good.
But, fortunately I did have a couple of good stout trees uphill from my muck hole and 35' of logging chain. I used the method of wrapping the chain over the bucket and hooking it to the bottom lip in a dumped position. I also dug out some of the muck in front of the rear tires and built some "pallets" from some 6' PT fence pickets from HD for $.99/
ea. I cut them in half and nailed 3 of them together with three 2x4's width wise to give me a 3'x18" solid pallet to put under the rear wheals.
My first pull I got almost all the way out of the holes when I had to take up the slack in the chain and on the second pull I moved another few feet into some muck that my front tires buried in. I just kept moving some 2x6 planks from behind to in front of the tires and taking the slack out of the chain. I really think the pulling with the bucket did 90% of the work. I was a little afraid that the stress might bend the top of the bucket, but it didn't /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
It took about 20minutes to get to firm soil. And I heard a forecast for the rest of this week calling for another 1-3" for rain by Friday.
I immediately rolled it onto my trailer and took it to the local car wash. After $6 in quarters, I could finally see the white of my rims. I was dark by then and I couldn't see that well to make sure I got the muck on the underside washed off. When I offloaded it and pulled into the wash bay I lowered the FEL and raised the front tires off the ground as much as I could in order to get under the frame with the washer. I left the tractor on the trailer when I got home and after work today I'll take a better look to see if anything got damaged.
I'll take a few pics tonight and post them of the mess |I made.
thanks all again. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
gary