I drove into town today to run some errands... went to Home Depot, dropped by the little Thai place for lunch, went to Trader Joe's... and in the back of my mind, I was thinking, what can I blog about tonight? I've got no new pic's really, and it's been raining off & on, so no real outdoor projects to write about. While at Lowe's I called Denise to let her know that they were out of the lights she wanted, and reminded her that this weekend we could go back and get the fallen pine trees we saw the other night... She said maybe we could go this afternoon. Fine with me I thought, now I could get some pic's of us recycling the fallen pines for Christmas trees for the blog... cool! I got home... unloaded the Jeep and waited. I didn't hear from them for a while, so I started laundry, etc... then the phone rings... "We had a little trouble... the tractor's in the ditch..." She and Henry had taken the tractor and gone on ahead to get their tree. She asked if we should leave it until morning, and I replied, "probably, but now I'm curious and I want to go down now and take a look". She says "I'll go down with you" "OK, meet you downstairs" So I changed into my boots, grabbed my camera... like a reporter at 4:55 with a 5pm deadline... I've got my story!
Driving down through the pasture we chatted... but in the back of my mind I was thinking how I should have gotten my winch a long time ago. It was a prominent part of my original 'vision' I had about moving up to WA... getting a piece of land, and using the Jeep to work it. But I wavered... on dropping the 2 grand. It was a test. Now in hindsight, I know I couldah done it, and now tonight, I know I shouldah done it. So here we are in the dark. Now from this angle, it doesn't seem that bad... but it's straddling a drain tube, a log and the ground disappears on the other side... it's leaning over pretty good and Denise had put the bucket down to help support it from tipping over. You can see the tree they chose, laying on top of the tractor... off the back is the bushy green part about 12 feet long, and up front you can see the extra 7-8 feet of practically bare trunk... 
This shot puts into a little better perspective... but still doesn't do it justice. Especially sitting in the drivers seat. Denise said that it was extremely low on fuel and it wouldn't start. I knew I had no chance of pulling it out without the tractor helping, so I asked her to try it again... It started. And I thought... maybe... So we brainstormed out loud as to the possible options. I wanted to get this thing out... I was on a personal mission... 
It's a muddy dirt road and not much room on the sides to play with... So we hooked up the chain and tried a few different angle's. The first step was to try and get it so it wasn't leaning so much. Denise insisted on driving the tractor, even though it made her very, very nervous! I conceded... she was better prepared to handle all the different, possible, actions necessary to extricate the tractor ... using the bucket as leverage, backing up, feathering the tilt of the bucket... as we hopefully backed out...
We gave it the proverbial 'gallant try'... but no luck. We simultaneously managed to get it a little more level, but deeper entrenched. The dirt is so wet and soft, especially right here where someone had just dug it out to put down the drains... and the only position for the Jeep was to try and back up, uphill. Those big tractor tires just kept digging down... not out. So now the pic's really don't do it justice ;-) From the beginning I knew we pretty much needed a winch, but I wanted to give it a go... Denise wondered out loud if AAA would come out... I said their policy was to come to the aid of whatever vehicle you're driving ;-) ... I'm coming back in the morning to dig out behind the tires and see if we can't get lucky... but she'll probably still have to call for a tow. If I only had a winch...
But the night was not all together wasted... The cows needed hay and so we ferried down a bale for the night. After carrying the last one down... I thought using the Jeep was a much better idea. So I just threw it on top and we drove it the short distance down to the meadow.
And Anna, Abe & Andy were quite happy we did! I'm not sure exactly what the moral of this story is... But I guess my personal lesson here is that I questioned my original 'vision'... the one I had during a guided, yoga meditation class a few years back. And many, many times since then, I had 'thought' about getting my 'Warn Power Plant Winch'. Because I knew that when I had it, uses for it would manifest everywhere... It was going to be my modern day mule, and I was going to use it to help develop my land. And I knew by living more rural, it would certainly come to be of service too. Because that's what they're made for... to move stuff... pull stuff... rescue stuff. But something always came up ..... and yet, something always comes up... 
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