While many think I live a charmed life the reality is that it’s not. Things do go wrong - just about every day. And most often they do so in a spectacular manner. Yesterday, as we were cleaning out our parking lot in preparation for pressure washing we decided to move the train out to the newly expanded yard for the grandkids to play on. It seemed like a quick and easy project - until I got going, I first took care of all the sharp pointy bits and other things the kids might possible harm themselves on. That took a little longer than I imagined it would. Then, with the kids safely at a distance I used the forklift to gently transport the train out to the yard. Things went smoothly and I repositioned the train twice to make sure it was perfect. But all that back and forth movement with the heavy machine softened up the ground around the train a little too much. True to my fears the forklift was soon stuck. I fetched the tractor and Peter. We hooked the two machines together to give the forklift a boost. We dug ramps and stuffed boards under the wheels for good measure. But with Peter’s aggressive driving (he of course set the blame at my feet) and much noise and wheel spinning the forklift soon was sitting with its frame firmly on the ground. We had managed to get it stuck better than anytime previously. By that time we were well into overtime and supper was calling. So the forklift and tractor were abandoned for the night. Today, we brought out a variety of tools, dug under the machine and jacked it up clear of the ground. We carefully placed blocking and planks under the wheels and built a plank road long enough for the machine to get up to speed before it was on the firm ground once more. We knew from a lot of hands-on experience that extra time taken at this stage to make it right was a lot faster than making do and then having to start over once more because it didn’t work. I positioned the tractor behind the machine to push it so that once Peter got moving he didn’t have to stop to unhook. With a mighty roar of both machines at full throttle he made it out of the yard. I’d love to say that I’ve learned my lesson about driving the ground on ground that wasn't paved or concrete. But the reality is that is what I said the last time.
