Red Rover, Red Rover, Roll the Ranger on Over!

Visiting Scofield with my father is a guarentted adventure. Although there was some debate on what and adventure is, I hold to definitions 1 and 3:

1. an exciting or very unusual experience.
2. participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises: the spirit of adventure.
3. a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.

So here is my lastest adventure. After spending about a quick "one" becoming three hours crawling around in rat poo, dirt, and fiberglass, we finished taping part of the heat tape to the pipes under our double-wide trailer so the pipes won't break or freeze. I'm all for the result of the work, just the work itself ranks in the top five nastiest jobs I've done.

5. Using the carwash to hose myself down after having black mud covering my entire body from mountain biking Muhler Park after the first snow fall.
4. Shoveling Fish Poop out of the bottom of our fish pond when I was 16
3. Hand sanding our deck with a hand sanding machine and blowing sawdust out of my nose for a week.
2. Cleaning dog poo of my shoe yesterday
1. Working on sewer lines on our Lake Powell boat

This only makes me realize how few nasty jobs I've really had to do. So after watching Stargate we went to bed, woke up early and hunted for an hour and then got to work seeding the ground. While seeding my father kept telling me, faster we've got to get the seed more spread out, and closer to the edge more we want to apply the seed to the fartherst sides.

Now I'm not sure if he thought through the effect of his orders, but like an obedient soldier, I complied without a second thought. Ok there were a few second thoughts.

First, I kept thinking about the king/boss/father who asked the prosective employees, how close to the edge can you drive my truck, Person 1: 6 Inches Person 2: 1 inch, Person 3: I'll stay as far from the edge as I possibly can.

So there I was close to the edge, the second thought that happened was right after a small rock covered by the snow that slightly turned the wheel. My thought was, perhaps I shouldn't go too close in case we hit a rock that swerves us off the side of the cliffs.

"Oh well," I thought, I must obey my orders.

Towards the end of the job, we were riding close to the edge and going quite fast, when BAM! We hit a snow covered rock, the stearing wheel spun to the right and the next thing we see is that we are headed straight for the side of the hill. Immediatly the Ranger lifts up and tips over. I really don't recall thinking I need to get into this safe position, but I did.

I stepped out of the ranger at the right tipping time and stood there as the rest of the ranger tipped over and I found myself in the middle of the cab somewhat trapped on all sides. I immedieatly looked to see if my dad was ok. He was fine. I was fine. In a way it was a small miracle that neither we nor the machine were injured.

That lead to the next adventure. Turing this 1,500 pound beast back on it's side. I opted for us to both shimmy it away from the hillside, but I father insisted that we could let the winch drag it away, and away it drug.

Finally as we were contemplating how to fanengle a method for the winch to get it back right side up, I suggested we try lifting it together. Tada! It worked, the machine was fine, and we were on our way to finishing the job!