More Mr. J.

I love my Harley!I have to tell you how

Ron turns his equipment into toys.  It was Mother's Day 1995.  We went to church.  When we returned, Mother and I were finishing lunch.  We went out to tell everyone to come in to eat. Still in their church clothes, Ron had the grandkids in the manlift.  They were moving back and forth in the tree leaves as high as the thing could go.  The kids were laughing and Ron made the bucket move back and forth.  We thought he would dump them out.  By then, I wasn't worried about them ruining their good clothes, I was worried for their safety.  Mother watched and laughed.  I went back in the house and did what I always did when my girls were small.  I just prayed. (They learned to operate the backhoe by age 10) I didn't want them to grow up afraid of everything like I was.

Another manlift story: May 22, 2009

My sister Maye was here from Texas.  She, Ron and I had eaten dinner.  It was about 9pm (dark).  Ron decided he would go down to the shop and check out his new manlift.  It's a good thing he had his phone in his pocket.  If he hadn't called, I don't know how long it would have been before I checked on him.  Maye and I were watching a movie.  Ron called me from his cell phone and told me to come get him down.  He was in the manlift bucket (basket, boom or what ever it is called).  He was a few feet higher than the shop, probably 20 or 25 feet high.  The machine was out of gas and he could not lower it. 

He had to teach me to operate the backhoe in the dark. I had a flash light so I could see all the levers, but when I turned the backhoe on, I couldn't hear Ron's instructions.  I had to turn it off each time to learn all the levers and how to raise the front end loader to help him get onto the roof and into the bucket.  I got that accomplished, and lowered him to the ground very smoothly.  I bet if I had to I could remember how to do it again.  I told him I bet he wished one of our girls was here.  Now I KNOW I'm not too stupid to learn.  I had never had the desire to play on the backhoe.  When he was down, we had to laugh.  Maye had put a ladder in the truck to try to help, but he was over 20 ft up and the ladder was 6ft.

By the way - the photo is the OLD manlift.  I can't find the new one. :)

I guess I will save the drag line (crane) stories for another day! :)

Don and I got our butts kicked so bad, after 3 days, it wasn't even shameful!!!!!!!