Did something dumb today.

[Tacotodd]

Misery loves company!

Hope pain goes away soon.

Me too!

[farmfromkansas]

OGH, you need to buy one of those inversion devices, some are called a inversion table, don't see where they get the name table, used to have some boots, with hooks so you could hook them on a bar and hang upside down, but I have what is called an inversion table, any time I over do it, I go to the basement and hang upside down for 30 to 40 seconds, don't hang too long, the blood rushes to your head, not good, but hanging upside down for 30 seconds will not hurt you, and usually gets me going again.  Some times, I have to do it a few times before it is well, other times once or twice, but any time I over do it, I go hang before going to bed.

[Old Greenhorn]

OGH, you need to buy one of those inversion devices,

Yeah I have tried those. They can give a little temporary relief, but I am way past that. Too little, way too late. My first back injury was at the age of 16 when I slid down a mountainside on my tailbone with a 50# pack on my back, finding every protruding rock along my path. Then got whacked across the back with a freestanding car hood and knocked out for 10 minutes(age 18 ), then doing an antenna job on the roof of a 4 floor building with a pitched roof and a 30MPH wind (age 21), then several more I have forgotten about, then sliding down the stairs on my tailbone which also gave me a bonus neuropathy (sp?) in my right leg I still have part of today (age 48 ), and the list goes on and on.
No thanks. I am fortunate to have a chiropractor trained and proficient in several different treatment forms. He is a genius with muscle and bone structures and has different ways to get things back to the way they are supposed to be. It is a balance between treatment and healing time. I went in Friday, and will go back Tuesday. Friday's visit reduced my pain from a 9 down to a 4 or 5. I walked in very slowly with a cane to help, and I walked out carrying that cane over my shoulder.
As we all know, there is no substitute for a good mechanic who knows what he is doing, and why. ;D

[thecfarm]

Your back has lived a hard a life. 

[ladylake]

I have yet to have one of those little pumps work when needed. Usually a rag around a blower nozzle in the fill hole and a little air pressure in the tank will get it going again.

I install one of these https://www.amazon.com/Rubber-Transfer-Vacuum-Gasoline-Accessories/dp/B06X3R9YBN/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=fuel+squeeze+bulb&qid=1595764592&sr=8-2
on all my diesels that don't have a electric pump,  works great.   Steve

[terrifictimbersllc]

I second that primer bulb. My 2001 LT40 super Kubota 42 did not have one and one had to open at the fuel filter, crank the engine, then open at the engine, crank again, diesel running down when successful, etc, etc.

Learned the taste of diesel dribbling out of my mouth.  

Didnt think of the bulb until WM started offering it in a revision, so got one, big difference.  

The 55 Yanmar on the new mill has an electric fuel pump that runs when the key is turned to on, this primes it fine in about a minute.  

Still better to not run out of diesel.

[WDH]

Oh boy, did I ever bollock things up today.  Dumb is an understatement.  Dumb, Dumb, Dumb....

I upgraded from my 56 HP tractor to get more HP and to be able to lift more weight and this new tractor has less than 20 hours on it.  Still new and shiny.  Went with SIL to go get some nice white oak logs from a couple of trees that Hurricane David blew down about 5 miles from the sawmill on another piece of timberland that I own.  The trees were uprooted down in the low ground, and while I knew that it was risky, I decided to give it a try.  First dumb move.  I really did know that it was too wet :.  Got the tractor on the gooseneck and hauled it over there and we cut several logs out of the first white oak.  I did manage to get the tractor to the logs and did manage to get one 8' log out.  The ground as mushy.  Made another try and got the butt log picked up, but as I was backing up, one end of the log hit a tree as the area was wet and very tight with other trees.  I thought that I could ease past and let the log slide a bit on the forks and get past.  Oh no.  All that weight of the log (it was a big log) on the front tires and the tree stopping progress caused the front tires to spin and before you knew it, they were sinking.  Should have dropped the log and went and got the winch, but oh no, decided to make one more try, then it was too late.  The front tires broke through the root mat and from there it was clear sailing to China.  Here is where I ended up when I finally decided to abandon the log. 



 

By now that little voice coming from my right shoulder said stop, your screwed, but that little voice on the left shoulder said give it another shot.  In the pic, you can easily see the front right tire.  I drove five miles home, got the 8000# warn winch and the 56 HP tractor that I am replacing in an attempt to winch the bigger tractor out.  Oh no.  Not gonna happen.  Just made things worse, actually very much worse, and the tractor did not move back an inch but it moved down further quite a few inches.  Here is the mess that I made.  If you look very closely, you just might be able to see the very tip top of the front right tire, then again, maybe not .



 

Having to leave my new tractor down in that swamp was a sinking feeling, but I knew that I had cooked my goose.  I knew that Jake, 60 miles away, had the stuff to get me out, but I was too embarrassed and ashamed to call him.  Then I remembered that the manager of the Pecan farm a few miles away had a 135 HP JD tractor that he used to bring me a ginormous pecan log.  Being Saturday, I knew that it was fruitless to even hope and call and get him on the phone, but low and behold he answered and just happened to be over at the Pecan farm turning off the irrigation pumps (because it had rained like a banshee and was wet, DUH!).  He said that he would be over shortly, and to make a long story short, we build a log raft under the front end loader/pallet forks on my stuck tractor and pushed down with all she had and lifted the front tires up just enough to build a short log platform under them, and after several attempts with him pulling me with a chain with links about the size of your fist, we got it out.  Whew.

Dumb.

[RichTired]

Well, did you get the logs or not... :D

[thecfarm]

Many years ago I was logging on my land. I was on the edge of one of my wet holes. It was a hard spot to get at, with the leave trees and the angle I had to get the logs out. I kept backing into the same spot. After the fourth time I knew I was pushing my luck. I winched in the log and got on the tractor and picked up the 3 pt winch and started forward. Did not get far, the rear wheel went down, went past China!! I knew I was in a mess, a mighty mess. I dropped the log and tried to ease it forward with my foot on the pedal that locks both tires in. It came right out!! How was beyond me. I winched the log to me and found another place to back in.
Than another time I was working on the Rocky Highway to the bog. I had a logging crew in there and I was bringing some more rocks to hold up the forwarder. Somehow I got one side off on the highway, than the more I tried to get back on the more I got off. Finally as WDH did, I had to call someone. I called the guy logging that night and told him I would be waiting at the house for a ride to The Bog. Hooked a chain around one of the arms of the forwarder and out it came. I raptured one of the hyd lines under the tractor, so he towed me to the house with his truck.

[WDH]

I only got out the one log.  I was exhausted after finally getting unstuck and did not have any more ambition as it related to recovering anything that remotely looked like a log.  The heat and humidity and the mud destroyed any further initiative  . 

[WV Sawmiller]

Danny,

   What's the fuss? You have to test the limitations on any new piece of equipment and now you know some of the things it won't do. :D I am glad nobody was hurt and looks like a good pressure washing will have you back where you started. Remember long cables and snatch blocks are your friends.

Well, did you get the logs or not... :D

That reminds me many years ago when my wife's brother in Alaska was sheep hunting and fell off a mountain and rolled and bounced about 200'. Broke both wrists and had a concussion. 35 miles from the nearest road so one buddy stayed with him and the other 2 hiked out to the nearest road and flagged down a state trooper who called a chopper to go get him. He said his rifle could shoot around corners when he came to a stop. His mom called my wife to tell her about the accident and Becky asked her "Well, did they get anything?"

[WDH]

Long cables and snatch blocks failed miserably.  My SIL looked at me and said, "Well, I guess you have it broke in now".

[firefighter ontheside]

Danny, no need to baby that new, shiny tractor.  Its best to know its limitations and now you know.  Looks like you stirred up a real soupy mess in that second picture.

[doc henderson]

it is always nice to get the new off the tractor so yo are not afraid to scratch it!  glad all is well and we can all learn from your adventure.

[Resonator]

Oh yeah, been there done that Danny. I have had my Kubota buried up to the frame more than once. (Be glad you don't have mud under deep snow!) :D
I've gotten all too proficient at lifting up wheels to get blocks and timbers under them. Make sure to give your new toy a good wash down, check it over, and grease everything. (And don't drive in that spot!) 

[Southside]

WV -  more and more I get the impression that you and your family should really not be around any mountains.  Y'all seem to roll down them quite a lot.  There is a place called North Dakota that would probably be a lot safer for you to live, won't roll nearly as far.   :D

Danny  - I would have come and helped you get out - of course from 1/2 mile away you would have heard Brad Paisley playing "Mud on the Tires"  over and over as I approached.  :D

[Old Greenhorn]

WDH that is a great story and well told, at a cost I am sure many of us can understand. I laughed long and hard, but not at you. No, I was laughing with you. Your humility in sharing your day's ordeal is something many of us have been through in one form or another. I have done similar or worse. The decision making process is predictable (from a distance of time), but when you are there in the moment it is certainly different, and that is why it is so humorous. We (many of us) have done, and decided the exact same things as you did, sometimes with much worse results (not that it could ever happen to me :D).
 Bottom line is this: you did something dumb, you used your available resources and got the rig out without damage and everybody went home safe to fight another day. Around here, we call that a Tuesday. Good on ya. Life is tough, get a helmet.

[samandothers]

Danny,

How many horsepower did it take to get that stuck?

Glad it ended well.

[caveman]

WDH, thank you for the introduction to your new "horse for the farm".  The old saying, "when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging", comes to mind.  I nearly stuck my Kubota a month ago while fetching logs out of the edge of my pond but it was pointed downhill at a very steep angle.

I am glad you got it out.  The wet, summer heat will sap the ambition out a man.  There is a lot more that goes into producing lumber than sawing the logs into boards.  Many do not understand all the touches, steps, equipment and adversity often involved.

[WDH]

Sam,

106 HP did a fine job of getting her stuck.  With HP comes weight, with weight comes trouble, sometimes.  The 2000 pounds of white oak on the forks at the start did not help all that much either.  At least as it comes to weight, with that heat and humidity, I came out of the adventure a little lighter myself.  Looked liked a drowned possum .  

(BTW, don't tell Jake.  He will play "Mud on the Tires", too, in the 2nd vehicle, the one behind Southside, and he will laugh at me too.  The only good thing is that I know that he has done worse :D).

[customsawyer]

I'm listening.
You got to watch my telescopic loader go down in my front yard.

[thecfarm]

I always enjoy getting someone else unstuck, but don't enjoy getting myself unstuck.  :D One reason, most times I stay high and dry when I am doing the pulling. I just hand the chain to the one stuck.  :D

[Sixacresand]

I bet Danny has already snaked that log out of the swamp.  

[farmfromkansas]

I have always found that you need a bigger tractor to get out the one you have stuck.  One time I got my biggest tractor stuck, got my wife and long cable and the 4020 to pull it out, and could do nothing.  Went to a ball game that night, told my neighbor my trouble, and he came in the morning with his 4wd Versatile with duals all around, and it came out easy. If your tractor set very long with water over the gearboxes, would pull the drain plug and see if there is any water in there.  Better now than after you start having problems.

[sawguy21]

 :D You southern boys REALLY know how to get into trouble. I can't be too smug though, gotten myself stuck more than once with errors in judgement. I once came upon a very stuck dump truck, his buddy showed up with a grader, hooked on and promptly buried it cab deep. The D8H arrived on the scene and pulled them out together with a very large chain. I was waiting for a chain (or the grader) to snap but everything held.