Ridiculously Stupid... and Phenomenally Lucky!
The snow has largely melted out, so I was able to drive to the top of the hill, hitting only a few icy patches. On the way down, however, the ice was particularly slippery and the truck got away from me. As shown below, I was inches from going down a steep hill that I might well not have survived. To say I was stupid is to understate by a wide margin!
To retrieve the truck I enlisted two people much smarter than me. Phil (left above) and Mike (right photo) not only threw in with enthusiasm, but between them came up with every solution we used to get the truck out. My contribution consisted of agreeing with them.
If we pulled the truck straight back, we risked having the front wheel slide down the hill. Phil recognized this and proposed latching onto the front wheel so it couldn’t slide (right photo). The tracks show how the right front wheel was sliding straight sideways just before it stopped.
Mike put chains on his truck and drove up so he could pull out my truck. For safety, we tied Mike’s truck off to a tree in case my pickup headed down the hill and pulled Mike along.
The above photo shows the track where the right, front tire came to a stop, mere inches from going over the edge with only a little snow and grass providing enough bite to prevent disaster. For reference, a log with roots in the upper left-hand corner of the photo was a solid 30 feet down.
Besides the craziness of the near disaster, I continue to make slow progress with the cabin. I chinked the ridge pole (above photo), completed the electrical wiring in the cellar, made good progress on the bathroom lighting, and mostly installed the bathroom fan. All small steps, but steps non the less.
Hopefully snow will come soon and normal wintertime skiing will resume.