Trevor happens to be sick today. I was holding him on a couch in the basement when the phone rang upstairs.
Not wanting to stir the whimpering child on my lap, I hollered into the nether reaches of the house for someone to "please answer that phone!"
Miles heeded my call. I heard him pick up the phone and say hello. Long pause.
Then I heard him say, "A Bobcat? No, we don't have a Bobcat." Long pause.
"No, ours is a.....um.....I'm not sure what it is. Not a Bobcat." Miles had by this time walked down the basement steps to be near me while his conversation continued. Long pause.
I saw the look on Miles's face was perplexed. Finally, he put his hand over the receiver and half lipped, half whispered to me, "This guy says there's a Bobcat flipped on it's side in our field." He was, obviously, still hung up on the word BOBCAT.
Instantly I was reaching for the phone. "Hello?" I manage to say as I reach the receiver over the top of Trevor's head.
"Hello, this is P---- R-----, your neighbor." He went on to tell me that he was just told that someone had been driving by our place when they saw a skid steer hauling a round bale tip over onto its side in our field. He was worried we didn't know about it yet and was concerned that one of the boys might need help.
Well, yeah, Miles. It's true. We don't have a BOBCAT......we have a GEHL.....For some dumb reason he figured if it was a BOBCAT the guy was talking about, the calamity couldn't have been ours because we don't have one. Now, had he had said GEHL....that would've been a different story. His deductive reasoning was just a smidge off that time.....
Anyhow, I ran for my boots as I was hanging up and was outside quicker than you could say BOO.
Paul was standing in the driveway talking to the guy who had just brought a dump truck load of gravel. Hmmmmm......either 1. this event didn't happen, 2. was no big deal or 3. he was unaware of it. It turned out to be the latter, but I didn't know that just then. I couldn't get his attention, so I skipped him and decided to move on to anyone else who might know what was going on.
The twins were out by the fuel tanks....fueling up the loader. Oh, the things I never thought I would say as a mother. "Hey, was that loader flipped over a little while ago?"
Brady and Brock gave each other a quick glance. I'm not sure which one spoke. I think it was Brock. "No. This loader was not flipped at all today." I caught the emphasis on the word "this".
I then remembered that somehow we have not one, but two similar looking loaders.
"Ok, guys. Tell me what's going on!!" They were already privy to this whole thing; I could tell. Garth had contacted them, and they were on the way to the rescue.
My attention was drawn out the back lane as I was speaking with the twins. I caught sight of the underside of a skid steer----a Gehl, by the way, not a Bobcat! (fancy that!) Garth was walking toward us just then laughing. Laughing.
Paul was joining the cluster of us by the fuel tanks. He turned his attention to where we were looking. "What in the world????" He noticed the skid steer on its side then, too.
It seems Garth was hauling a bale out of the field just in back of the house. The embankment---however slight it may be---was just muddy enough to cause him to start sliding, sliding, sliding sideways until he knew he was about to tip.
His reactions are often notably *not* what I would've done in similar situations. Realizing he was tipping, he reached up and switched the key off. He figured there was no use messing the motor up in the ensuing shake up.
Thankfully, the operator of our *Gehl* (not *Bobcat*) skid steer was caged in and the risk of harm in this mishap was greatly minimized. In fact, he wasn't hurt at all.
After the twins finished fueling up the other loader, they had the thing righted again. They'll need to figure out how to pop the right rear tire back onto the rim, but that seems to be the only residual problem.
I am glad the neighbor called even though help was already on the way. He had no way of knowing that! You never know with farm accidents how serious it may be. Depending on the situation, Garth could've been hurt and we may not have discovered it for a while!!
I'm just sorry I hadn't taken the call myself. I'm sure listening to an 8 year old trying to recall the brand of skid steers we have was frustrating!! Details, details. It sure makes a difference which details we focus on!
~Colleen
