Snow? Or Mud?

[Bird]

Aaah, so many of you talking about playing in the snow and it was in the high 60s here this afternoon. And while most things have pretty well dried out from the heavy rains last month, the road is still closed - under water - at the creek below my place; been that way for over 3 weeks. This evening, just before sundown, my newspaper carrier, teenager I'd guess to be 18 or 19 who drives a little Ford Explorer pickup, showed up, on foot and all muddy, to see if I could help him. He usually turns around in my driveway and goes back anyway, but today he decided to go see if the water was down enough he could drive through it. Fortunately, he abandoned that idea before he got into the water, but the road is a single lane down there and instead of backing up a couple of hundred yards, he tried to turn around right there. He had his little truck almost exactly crossways in the road with the front end sunk to the frame in the soft mud in a shallow borrow ditch. No way, or room, to pull him straight backwards out of the ditch, and even if we could have that would have just put the back end in the ditch on the other side. I told him I couldn't be responsible for any damage, but that I could put a chain on his trailer hitch and drag the back end sideways. What a muddy mess, but no visible damage to anything when I got him out./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif Now of course the front end was so covered with mud that I don't know whether it had any damage or not./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[BWa]

I know how he feels , I tried a dumb move with my full size truck , was dead dog beat trying to get my garden watering system in place and put some in my 2 wheel drive truck , drove down the center road in the field ok , but coming back out I fell off the hard packed road in to the wet plowed field , ( leased out and the guy plowed up half the road that year ) Sunk it to the frame on one whole side , no tractor to get it out , had to call my road side friend with the flat bed service to get me out , ......
I miss him , he was a local charactor and the town is less colorful in his passing , was crushed in a backhoe accident .
His best friend and him on a job , and there was a miss queue , or misunderstanding and he was pinned against a tree on a back swing of the bucket arm by his friend .
Missed by by many , but more by his friend ,very hard on the guy ,he is a broken man now , guess you can say that We loss two great people that day .

 

[Thomas]

Bird,
Did the B2710 come to rescue?
To be honest I would rather have the snow,for mud repairs alot of extra work,and thank goodness for pressue washers.

 

[Boondox]

Gawd, that's tough! I read in the paper now and then where someone accidently kills or cripples a friend or family member, and read between the lines at the burden the survivor will have to carry the rest of his or her life.

Pete

 

[Bird]

Thomas, I sure would have rather used the tractor, but it's still got the finish mower on the back end and the front end loader off, and it was about to get dark, so I just drove my old '81 Ford F250 down there to pull him out. We both did a lot of wheel spinning, but finally got him out.

 

[DFB]

Bird,

Stories about being stuck in the mud bring back memories of situations my younger brother would get into. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

A while back he had himself a 63 Chevy long box. Brought it here when he came back from from livin' out west. Reno NV.

Used to go out onto the Class IV roads and skid trails after dark for grins.

Well one nite he got mired in a mud hole on a logging trail, rockin' it back and forth cranking the steering wheel trying to get out. Ended up snapping something in the steering box. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Stranded himself out there in the woods. Just him and his ol' dog. A 5 mi hike back home. 3mi out of the woods and another 2 mi back to the house sportin those fancy cowboy boots he brought back with him too! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Poor ol' dog. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif Couldn't make it all the way, just gave up and sat there, /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif

So me and my cousin were there sittin on the front porch when all of a sudden here he comes totin' a little red Radio Flyer Wagon with dog sittin' in it. Kinda borrowed it for his moment in need. Boy did we get a laugh out of that. Mud all over his boots and on his clothes up to his knees. /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

Lucky for him he had another steering box. Next day the 3 of us took my 79 Dodge FWD along some tools and the part. Went up to where he was, dragged him back onto solid dry ground, and R&R the steering box out there in the woods so he could drive it home.

Of course I had to first suggest to him he get under the truck and do the swap before I pull him out of the mud hole. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

DFB