Oops!

A couple of years ago, one of my friends who owns a backhoe dug out a small pond hole above the main pond. It was a wet year and the hole quickly filled.



Later it quickly emptied and it has stayed empty to this day. There is just enough room to drive between it and my forest's edge. I do that from time to time when I want to loop by the "pond" on the way in to the property.



Saturday, I pulled off the driveway after spending two hours driving through a swamp nearby looking for critter photos. As I pulled in the drive, I turned towards the pond to check the water level. I was going pretty slow, just enjoying the early evening calm, when ... CLUNK!

The JEEP dropped off the edge and into the mini-pond hole!

Actually it didn't drop off the edge ... the edge collapsed where some critters had excavated beneath it.

Lucky for me, this happened at home where all the goodies I needed to excavate myself were at hand. Here I am modeling the essentials:

• rope


• come-a-long jack ... that's what my Dad always called these hand winches, you may have a different name.


• shovel


• sheepish look over a goofy predicament


• camera and tripod for blogging this later
  

Here's the view from the driver side.




When the side caved in, the right front wheel dropped straight down to the bottom of the hole. This caused the JEEP to wedge itself securely on it's forward frame.
The rear passenger-side wheel came up off the ground as you can see in the picture above. The JEEP was so perfectly balanced on it's frame and the edge of the hole that you could rock it with one hand.
I think I could have tipped it over with one good shove.

I didn't want to go forward as the abrupt edge of the hole might do some damage, plus it didn't really look like the JEEP could move, but I gave her a try just to see. I put her in low and gave it a shot, ... just in case, but sitting on the frame with the front driver wheel against a vertical hole wall and the passenger rear wheel up in the air ...she wasn't going anywhere.

I quickly took a few cell phone shots and sent them out to family and friends so I could get my daily dose of chiding, then I walked up the slope to gather the tools you saw in the first picture.


I needed to slope the "cliff" edge to give that front wheel an easier trip up and I needed to get that one rear wheel down to where it could get some traction.

I used the shovel to slope the vertical wall of the mini-pond and to remove dirt from around the wedged frame.

Then, I shoveled sand under the floating tire on the rear passenger side.

There's the come-a-long jack in action. The cable from the jack is going to the JEEP. The yellow rope is tied to an oak tree in line with the JEEP.

In the picture above you can see the rope/winch setup. I cranked the come-a-long jack until the JEEP inched back just a little. This brought the floating rear wheel down enough to make contact with mound of sand I had piled under it.

When the sloping, mounding, and winching was over, I hopped in the JEEP, started her up and she fairly popped out of the hole!

I love a good wench ... ahem ... w-i-n-c-h.

I have to confess, while I was uncoiling rope at the beginning of the excavation process, a guy in a truck was passing on the county road. He saw me and the cock-eyed JEEP and rolled to a stop.

"Hey Buddy! You need a hand?"

I hesitated ...

Now, you have to understand that my high school pals, Kevin, Billy, Greer, and I had a truck philosophy that basically stated:

You weren't really stuck unless you had to call for help.

(No cell phones in those days, so this usually involved a hike)

No matter how mired your Scout, Truck, or Landrover was ... even if water and mud was coming in the doors ... if you could get it out without requiring outside help, you weren't really stuck.

We usually got mired late at night far from anywhere. The fear of our fathers finding out what we had done with their vehicles motivated us to dig, jack up, pile logs under tires, and pray, until whatever vehicle we had sank was freed of it's earthly bondage.

So when this guy offered to help ... well, it was a little like me asking for help wasn't it? I reverted right back to my 17 year old self ... what would Kevin, Greer, and Billy think?

"No thanks, I'm fine. I've got my rope and this come-a-long jack. I can get it, but I really appreciate the offer."

"You sure?"

" Yes, I can get it. Thanks a lot for stopping though."

In the end, I was able to get her out and it wasn't even that hard to do. So technically, according to the rules of engagement ... I was never really stuck.

Kind of funny that after two hours of driving around in a nearby favorite swamp and taking photographs, I come home and get momentarily mired in my own front yard ...

...Not stuck though.