Goes earns more stripes.
There's been so much going on we'll never catch up so let's start with today. Goose earned some stripes and a medal today.
Who's the guy that made up that saying...."No good deed goes unpunished?".
A neighbour from the farm calls last night, a little sad, a little humbled, says his dozer is a little stuck. I do the math, grab the Gentry's Garage lucky deuce shirt and head out today to evaluate. I do the math again, Dozer, 35,000 lbs, Goose 12,000, Alberta Loon manure suction on the Dozer and the pull area is covered in it. The dozer has a 6 way blade so I head to the G749 farm to grab the 70G chain that never breaks unless it's correctly mounted over the edge of a dozer blade just right. We couldn't get a tractor to the dozer because the farmers are a little busy, they're big enough to do the job, they're just busy.
I gave Goose a look over and tell her if she doesn't start we'll stay in the barn. Brake fluid is down an ounce, the radiator down a quart, motor down a half quart, diffs are good, trans and TC are right at the mark, Goose fires like a champ. We take the short drive down the gravel road, over the hill and not far away at all.
Goose backs in through the sloppy road....I heard a guy hit the TC with a hammer but the way Goose backed in through the mud, I'm sure it was the Sprag kicking in.
We back up to a tree .....right on the strongest point.....and we use Goose and the tree as an anchor. The boys stretched the chain / strap combo tight and we use the 6 way on the blade to pull the dozer ahead a few inches at a time. We gained a lot of distance and almost had the dozer out when the strap end broke.
You'd think that would scare a few guys but not these guys, no sir. These guys do recoveries all the time and must have hurt a few people because the "clear" word comes out from everywhere and everyone scrambles in the bush behind trees. No one likes using chain but it was the heaviest tugging, longest distance, "exploding schrap" gear we had. After re-hooking and trying again, it is a good thing the only one 'ever' within detonation distance was the dozer operator. The last link on the chain grabbed the sharp edge of the dozer blade and split like a banana.
By now I'm thinking Goose starts way too easy but my neighbour borrowed the dozer from another friend and really needed to give it back tomorrow. I agree to give it one more try. We realign Goose just right so she slides sideways on the tree, off to the edge of the bumper and collapses the little support plate holding it all together.
I'll grab a better picture of the 3/4 inch bolt that pulled through and split the heavy plate bumperette but over all, it's just a scratch. Goose performed amazing and we didn't even break the LED lens. I loaned the neighbour another 50 feet of chain and suggested he hang some rubber tires over them if he tries it again, just before he opened a beer. Still waiting to hear if he got it out.
