Those long lens cameras ARE cool and all. I see guy's use them at the track all the time and I think to myself "damn, I'd love to have one of those" but then I get wind of how much they cost and I happily put my little 4 mega Sony into my pocket and call it a day.

 

Must of been something in the Air this weekend!




This weekend I got a early knock on my door from a frantic neighbor. She lives alone (not hot, so don't even go there Mayfair) and is paranoid. She relies on us a lot since we live up the mountains and are not super close to anyone else.

Anyway, I answered the door and found her sobbing. After my wife and I got her to calm down, it turns out she could not get her car out of her driveway due an oak tree had fallen and blocked her car in. Normally I would have to break out the chain saw (at 6:00 am on a sunday) and go to work. But this time I decided to try my Diesel out.

I got some tow straps from my garage (funny enough had those two straps for a old POS jeep they kept dieing, but that's another story) and dug around the oak so I could securly get a strap around the tree. That took about and hour of digging. (Meanwhile my wife drove her to work, while my step duaghter watched out for the 2 year old). Then I connected the tow strap to the rear (my tow receiver).

OK don't laugh here....

So I get in my 06 CTD and start applying a little throttle. I can feel the truck knuckle down a bit, so I give it some more throttle (keep in mind this is not a small oak tree, it was about 4-5 feet wide). Mud starts flying everywhere and I start to go a bit sideways. Just as I am thinking I better use 4 wheel low, the damn strap breaks and my truck connects......


I sense some of you are laughing at this point.....


I go launching down the dirt driveway and almost knocked myself out on the window sill since I had my head out looking behind me at the fallen tree. Luckily I still had my wits about me and was able to get the truck under control before a nasty left hand turn in the driveway.

After collecting my thoughts and feeling silly, I got out and found a tiny shread of tow strap hanging on my tow receiver. So, I go back up to the fallen tree and try for a second go. I busted out the chain saw and decided to cut the damn tree in half. That took about another hour to get through the damn tree. I then used a length of chain and 4 WHEEL LOW this time and was amazed at how easily I moved about a 5' length of the trunk. Must of weighed a few hundred pounds easily. I then went back and hooked up to the rest of the tree and pulled it too to the edge of the ravine. All in all the whole process took me 5 hours to complete.

Lessons learned:

1) Use 4 wheel low when pulling a tree
2) Make sure your tow strap is not old and crappy
3) See number 2 again to be sure
4) Cut the damn tree first for easy removale

 

YEP .... I laughed !!!



Seriously though, I wonder if you would have been fine with the full lenght tree had you just had the right tow rope to begin with?

Man you guy's in the country. What would have happened if this was Monday morning? Would your bosses have understood?

 

I really don't live in the country per say. I live in the Los Gatos mountains. Its only about a 5-10 minute drive to los gatos.

Here be where I live:

http://www.zillow.com/search/Search....CA&mode=search

 

Well good god there rich kid......[sm=bling.gif]

 

DANG! 900,000 for 1800 square feet. [sm=insomnia.gif]

 

Residence: Single family Single family
Bedrooms: 3 4
Bathrooms: 2.0 2.5
Sq ft: 1,777 2,400
Lot size: 10,454 sq ft / 0.24 acres 21,780 sq ft / 0.50 acres
Year built: 1926 1926
Year updated: -- 2005
# Stories: 2 2
Total rooms: 5 10
Basement: -- None
Roof type: -- Composition
Primary exterior material: -- Wood
View: -- Territorial
Primary parking type: -- Carport
Covered parking spaces: -- 1
Primary heating source: -- Gas
Primary heating system: -- Forced air
Primary cooling system: -- Central
Architecture: -- Contemporary
Fireplace: -- Yes
Swimming pool: -- No
Waterfront: -- No
County: Santa Clara
Parcel #: 55824091
Zillow Home ID: 19752960
Legal description: --
Zestimate: $896,173

DAMN !!!
Does that little ole lady need a little Kato Kalin in her life?



So much for you answewring to a boss huh ??

 

So is that not what they make ___ to cover, oh never mind

Dam the last time I was in Los Gatos was back in 1976 and I bet it has changed a lot. I also see you live in the low rent district as the one house I looked at in 76 was $189.000 and it was a 2 bedroom shack on a large lot on a small hill [sm=violin.gif]

 

holy crap is right, I would hate to see what my 4 bed 2.5 bath 3200sqft w/ 2000sqft basement on 1.5acre would go for out there

 

DAMN !!!!!

What did it go for in Atlanta ??

You guy's and all of your space are killing me.