I may have mentioned that the neighbor just to east of my place is a big-time hunter. He spends all year working on different areas of his roughly 500 acres of woodland; feed plot here, roads going there, fields in beans or corn. Normally he and his friends come up on a Friday and work through the weekend.
About 11 this morning I get a call from my son in law in Huntsville (50 miles away). It seems that one of the guys that was working had gotten a truck stuck and ‘went down’ in the general area of ‘along the trail on the northeast portion of his property. Somehow he was able to get a text out to the property owner (also in Huntsville) about where he was and that he was in trouble. No other info available and, given the very spotty cell service here, no other info would be available. So off I go.
I find the guy and he is down ‘hard’ he can’t get up, and owing to his more than 300 lbs, I can’t get him up. I drive over to where I heard the another guy working a skid-steer in the woods. Even if he had cell service, and he didn’t, he would have never heard his phone. We go back to the guy that is down and use the bucket on the equipment, slid under the big guy to get enough leverage to get him on his feet. Leaving the big guy with the skid-steer we go down the trail another 5 or 6 hundred yards and yank the stuck truck out of the ditch.
None of us are as young as we used to be. When it gets hot and humid out and you find yourself in an area that will likely not have cell service…don’t do stupid stuff! Wedge a little margin for error in all of your plans, take water, have a firearm handy.
Be prepared and safe as you enjoy your weekend.
Sage advice. Getting to 63 is bringing me down. I can’t big game hunt anymore, God forbid I shoot something. Maybe I should take up duck hunting again.
65 on this end. I still hunt but it had better be under 300 yards and in fairly good light because of my dwindling eyesight. One of the best things that ever happened to me was I started to learn what my limitations were/are…that list (limitations) seems to be growing!
You’re a good man Charlie Brown. :^) Good thing your neighbor has you around !
Yeah, time slips by and we aren’t the same as we were 20 years ago. Heavy pasture work is now early mornings – late evenings in the summer for us, no more work all day and tough it out. My muscles remind me every time I fight the ‘huisache wars’ (cutting thorny brush from the pasture). I used to bounce back after a day – now three days of muscle soreness is pretty much the rule. I don’t take ibuprofen because of my blood thinner medications interactions – don’t want to screw up the INR.
Yup – sux getting old.
Neighbors are a good thing! Around this area if you have a problem they’ll jump right in. We had a tree blow over on an exterior fence and, because our cattle were not in that pasture, I thought that I’d wait until the rains quit before removing it and repairing the barbed wire. I went up the next morning and the tree had been cut away and the fence repaired. No phone call, no text, the neighbor saw it and helped out.
Good folk up this way.